The Malta airport tagged July’s growth as “unprecedented”, as the average daily number of passengers travelling through the hub surpasses the number of people inhabiting Malta’s most populous town; St Paul’s Bay, press statement sent to Business Malta says.

The growth was also matched by aircraft movements increasing by 4.5% to total more than 5,000 take-offs and landings throughout the month, as compared to the same month a year earlier.

Seat capacity was up by 5.6% and the seat load factor (SLF) stood at 87.0% — the metric indicating how much of the carrying capacity of airlines operating to and from Malta airport was used.

All five top markets boosting July’s traffic performed better than a year ago. The United Kingdom saw an increase of 3.9%, Italy by 1.5%, Germany by 18.2%, France by 6.8% and Spain by 10%.

The spur in figures was partly supported by an improved schedule for the summer months, which introduced several new routes including Cardiff, Exeter, Genoa, Verona, Lamezia and Perugia, the MLA says. Other developments include the extension of the Leipzig, Berlin and Hamburg routes into the summer months, and increased capacity on several routes such as Rome Fiumicino, Lyon, Madrid, Valencia and Bilbao. Moreover, the airport’s Cruise and Fly programme was a contributing factor to the solid performance recorded by both the United Kingdom and Germany.

Seating area expands 10%

Having just opened a new seating area at departure previously occupied by a retail outlet, seating capacity of the airport has improved by 10%, prior to August’s “holiday rush”, according to another press statement sent to BM.

The new waiting area incorporates Maltese textures mainly through the use of limestone, which approach could likely be adopted in other parts of the terminal, MLA expects, to create a “better sense of place for the millions of tourists who pass through” the hub every day. Indeed, tourist numbers soared above 2.6 million in 2018, and expectations are high that the figure will further improve this year.

The new area has introduced two seating options catering to the needs of both travellers looking to lounge away their waiting time until departure and passengers looking to make the most of their wait by getting some work done, MLA says in the press statement. The business bars have been equipped with charging points to help business travellers quickly catch up with their daily duties prior to taking off.

The new seating area comes as but one addition to Malta Airport’s expanding infrastructure. In the following year, MLA expects to add further improvements, such as more retail space being freed up to allow for better passenger circulation and the introduction of additional seating.

Malta International Airport has also been working on finalising plans for a terminal expansion, which will see the building occupy a much larger footprint and offer better facilities as well as extended operational areas.

The post MLA pax numbers keep growing as seating capacity expands first appeared on The Malta Business Weekly.

Both imports and exports were down by €62.3m and €27.6m, respectively. The decrease in the value of imports was primarily due to mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials (€61.5m).

On the exports side, mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials (€13.4m) and machinery and transport equipment (€12.1m) contributed to the main decrease, according to the NSO press release.

Focussing on Q1 2019, the trade deficit widened by €606.7m when compared to the corresponding period of 2018, reaching €1.515b.

Imports and exports increased by €613.7m and €7.1m respectively, with higher imports mainly in machinery and transport equipment (€754.9m), partly outweighed by a decrease of €164m in mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials.

The main increase in exports was registered in miscellaneous manufactured articles (€42.1m), partly outweighed by a decrease in machinery and transport equipment (€26.9m), as the press release says.

For the same reference period, imports from the European Union reached €1.720b (67.1%) of total imports. A decrease of €218.5m was registered in imports from EU countries when compared to the same period in 2018.

The United Kingdom and Italy registered an increase and decrease in imports with €594.4m and €79.3m, respectively. Regarding exports, the main increase was directed to the United States (€8m), whereas Italy (€25.1m) registered the highest decrease.

The full report including charts and visual representation of data is available for download at the website of NSO.

The post Trading goods deficit drops to €234.2m in April first appeared on The Malta Business Weekly.

“The subscriber growth results are very positive especially when considering Melita was the third operator in the Maltese market. We are grateful to our customers for their loyalty and support. Melita’s success in attracting a growing number of mobile customers is the result of a focused effort to provide the best possible customer experience and value for money,” said Harald Roesch, CEO at Melita Limited.

Melita believes that the launch of mobile plans offering unlimited data supported its subscriber growth by 16% in 2018.

“Among other initiatives, major investment went into a brand new — and Malta’s only — 5G ready mobile network, as well as a significant increase in mobile roaming agreements that provide access to customers to faster and cheaper roaming experience,” the CEO added.

The post Melita subscriber numbers to reach record 140,000 first appeared on The Malta Business Weekly.