Malta has lost more than 70 per cent of its air routes in one year, Malta International Airport has revealed.

The country’s airport linked to just 28 other airports in January when compared to 99 connected routes 12 months prior. 

Air connection frequency has also been sharply curtailed, with links to Rome’s Fiumicino airport the most drastically hit: one year ago, there were 27 weekly flights between it and Malta. Last month, there just eight. 

The staggering decline in connectivity was announced by Malta International Airport in a company announcement to the Malta Stock Exchange, which informed shareholders that the airport had seen traffic fall by more than 90 per cent last month. 

January 2021 was MIA’s worst month since it reopened for business last July, following a forced closure as a result of a COVID-19 public health emergency. 

Just 38,938 passengers moved through the airport last month – the equivalent of three days’ worth of traffic the previous January, before the pandemic reached Europe. 

Air travel was dealt a further blow last month by a fresh round of travel restrictions imposed across Europe, as governments worked to stem a rising tide of virus infections and protect against new, more virulent strains of the COVID-19 virus. 

Flights to and from the UK, traditionally one of Malta's largest markets, were suspended in late December, except for Maltese residents and nationals.

Having slid four places when compared to January 2020, the United Kingdom ranked sixth in Malta International Airport’s top market list, with Italy, Germany, France, Turkey, and Belgium all outperforming it in terms of passenger movements.

Earlier on Tuesday, national airline Air Malta warned that it would be forced to whittle down its network of air routes even further, slashing unprofitable routes in a bid to stay afloat. The company did not say how many routes, or which ones, it planned to shelve.