A total 3.5 million passengers went through Malta International Airport between January 1 and today - the same amount that made use of the airport until the first week of December last year, MIA CEO Markus Klaushofer said this morning.

To celebrate, tourists landing in Malta were this morning treated to music and colour as four local music acts entertained visitors around the airport, while colourful T-shirts from Air Malta’s collaboration with YMCA Homeless Kids Project were handed out as gifts - representing MIA’s donation to the cause.

Addressing a news conference at the MIA Schengen Area arrivals terminal, Mr Klaushofer said the summer period as a whole had been an exceptional one.

The season saw 1.1 million passengers using the airport. There was a 39 per cent increase in French passengers and an average 91 per cent capacity was reached on German routes.

The shoulder months also appeared very promising.

Mr Klaushofer said the first three weeks of October had shown almost identical passenger rates to the first week of August.

While northern Africa and southern Mediterranean countries continued to go through a period of instability, Malta’s tourism sector remained “as solid as a rock”.

And forward bookings for the shoulder months had been exceptionally strong even as late as the closing days of the summer period.

Air Malta chief commercial officer Philip Saunders said figures for Air Malta continued to increase over the same period last year and the recent 25 per cent discount across most routes last month contributed to the high figures this shoulder season.

Tourism Minister Karmenu Vella said that Malta had shown the second best results in tourism growth, only behind Turkey, from across European countries.

The traditional seasonal gap in the tourism industry was a main priority for the coming weeks, Mr Vella said adding he would be working closely with the Malta Tourism Authority and the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association to help support the industry in what he foresaw as being a record winter.

He said that, so far, seat allocation for the winter months on most airlines visiting Malta had increased by some 10 per cent.

This, he said, would lead to an increase of some 100,000 passengers.