The airport recorded a total of 653,100 passenger movements in April, in parallel with 4,554 aircraft movements. Traffic peaked on the 18 April with over 26,500 movements, fuelled by the Easter holidays.

MIA says that its new summer schedule contributed to an increase of 6.3% in seat capacity, and seat load factor (SLF) in April grew by 3.2 percentage points to 83.3%.

The airport’s top drivers of passenger traffic remained unchanged from the previous month: the United Kingdom (+7.4%), Italy (+6.8%), Germany (+14.4%), France (+14.5%) and Spain (+13.5%), according to figures by the airport.

The post Malta airport’s traffic grows by 10.5% in April first appeared on The Malta Business Weekly.

The Journey Facilitation Programme was launched last year to assist passengers with autism through their airport journey. In the framework of this programme, specially-trained personnel guide travellers on the spectrum, and provide access to quiet rooms to minimise noise and visual stimuli, says the press release.

“This past year, the Journey Facilitation Programme has been availed of more than 180 times, and the feedback received has served to highlight what a big difference this special service has made to users, encouraging us to explore new ways of turning a potentially stressful experience into a more pleasant one,” said Alex Cardona, Head of Customer Services and Traffic Development at MIA.

An online visual guide has also been made available by the airport offering simple instructions, photos and directions through the departure and arrival terminals. This guide also includes brief explanations of crucial moments in terms of sensory stimuli, such as checking in, security screening and border control.

A free storybook is presented to young travellers on the spectrum helping them with preparing for the flight. The booklet follows the adventure of two characters going through their first airport journey and is available for a limited period.

Airport staff also encourages passengers on the spectrum to bring noise-cancelling headphones and stress-relieving toys to make trips less demanding emotionally.

The post Malta airport to further improve Journey Facilitation Programme first appeared on The Malta Business Weekly.

“While the Maltese Islands remain synonymous with warm, bright and sunny weather, the country has seen its fair share of rather extreme weather in recent years,” the Met Office says.

Although bouts of rain could come to the archipelago in the summer peak months of June and August, the office says that the so-called shoulder months — those during the spring and autumn when the temperatures can fluctuate drastically — will bring drier and more pleasant weather. A white winter stays highly unlikely for this year too due to the surrounding warm sea.

Weather forecasting has come a long way since the first meteorological office in Malta opened its doors, evolving from drawings on maps and extensive calculations to extraordinarily high-resolution digital models, the Meteorological Office says. “Initially, the meteorological office was only able to provide three-day forecasts. Advances in technology, investments in new equipment and further training then permitted forecasters to provide up to seven-day forecasts,” the press statement says.

The office gathers detailed weather data from various localities around the Maltese Islands, allowing a meteorological systems administrator to draw up monthly weather reports, accessible to the public through Malta International Airport’s website.

Malta’s sole weather service provider Met Office is responsible for issuing weather warnings. The colours allocated to weather warnings are yellow, amber and red, with the severity of expected weather increasing with the saturation of the colour warning.

Last year’s storms lingered on to the beginning of 2019. Following what many tagged as a historic storm of the recent years in Malta, the Maltese government turned to the European Commission at the beginning of 2019 to ask for funding to deal with the damages the archipelago suffered. Rough waters forced Virtu Ferries to cancel routes and launch extra services to make up for the outage. Heritage Malta was also forced to temporarily close down some of its sites to deal with damages caused by the heavy winds and rainfall.

The post Malta suffers record number of storms in 2018 first appeared on The Malta Business Weekly.