Malta's international airport welcomed more than 8.3 million passengers between January and November this year, with the 8 millionth passenger milestone being reached for the first time in the airport’s history.

The 8 millionth passenger travelled through MIA on November 12.

Marking a 15 per cent increase over the same comparable period last year, the strong 11-month performance has already confirmed 2024 to be the airport’s best-performing year to date, the airport said in a statement.

In November, a total of 630,637 passengers travelled through the airport, translating into a double-digit growth of 19.2 per cent over the same month in 2023.

Traffic peaked towards the beginning of the month, with 26,936 passenger movements registered on November 2 - the month’s busiest day.

This growth in passenger numbers in November was experienced in parallel with an upturn of 19.8 per cent in aircraft movements and an increase of 18.3 per cent in seat capacity over the same month in 2023.

Seat load factor also gained 0.7 percentage points over last year, to stand at 85.6 per cent.

The top contributor to November’s traffic was Italy (+9.6 per cent over 2023) with a market share of 20 per cent, followed by the UK (+16.7 per cent).

The most significant growth within the airport’s top markets, however, was observed in the Polish market (+56.0 per cent).

Overtaking Germany and Spain, Poland secured the third spot on Malta International Airport’s market leaderboard, with this result having been achieved last in January 2024.