Malta recovering at slower pace than southern European counterparts – MIA

Last month’s traffic through Malta International Airport totalled 311,692 passenger movements, recouping 39 per cent of July 2019 traffic levels, MIA said in a statement.

This shows that Malta is recovering at a slower pace than its Southern European counterparts whose recovery rate for July averaged at 57 per cent according to Airports Council International data, MIA said.

Seat capacity deployed on routes to and from Malta was just 35.5 per cent below 2019 levels, with the seat load factor (SLF) for the month, which measures the occupancy of the seats available, standing at 52.6 per cent compared to 87.0 per cent in July 2019.

Throughout the month, travel opportunities for the local market continued to increase as French flag-carrier Air France launched three weekly flights to Paris Charles de Gaulle airport and two brand-new routes to Chania and Cagliari were added to Malta International Airport’s summer schedule, among other traffic developments.

July also saw the return of the United Kingdom among Malta International Airport’s top five markets following the easing of travel restrictions between the two countries and the subsequent increase in flight frequencies on several UK routes as well as the introduction of additional routes by a number of airlines.

The United Kingdom moved up four places from June, displacing Spain from the market leaderboard and pushing each one of the German, French and Polish markets down one position compared to June. Italy, on the other hand, retained its top spot with 60,388 passenger movements.

An industry assessment issued by Eurocontrol on 22 July noted that European traffic was clearly on the increase in the 10 weeks leading to the publication of this report, with domestic travel still dominating passenger traffic.