December was busy for Malta International Airport as it registered the strongest recovery rate to pre-pandemic levels, data issued on Wednesday shows.

The airport saw 421,468 passenger movements, translating to a recovery of 88.3 per cent of pre-pandemic traffic.

Daily passenger traffic averaged 13,000 movements, but on the month’s busiest days - December 23, 29 and 30 - movements averaged 17,000 passengers.

Seat load factor reached a high of 81 per cent.

Italy the busiest market

Italy accounted for most passenger traffic in December, with a 21.4 per cent market share, followed by the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and Poland.

The French and Polish markets grew above pre-pandemic levels, with the former registering an increase of 26.0 per cent and the latter growing by 58.7 per cent over 2019. On the other hand, the number of passengers travelling to and from the other three markets was lower than pre-pandemic December levels.

MIA said in a statement that December’s results brought full-year traffic up to 5.8 million passenger movements - 20% below the full-year traffic for 2019. While August was 2022's busiest month with 712,122 passenger movements, December registered the strongest recovery rate, the airport said. 

 

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