A total 433,621 passengers used Malta International Airport in November, the airport said in an announcement on the Malta Stock Exchanges.

It said this translates to a recovery of 87.9% of pre-pandemic traffic, the strongest recovery rate MIA registered so far.

Although the number of seats available on flights to and from Malta remained at 19.9% below 2019 levels, the seat load factor gained 7.7 percentage points, reaching an all-time high occupancy rate for November of 85.8%

Italy remains the largest market

Malta airport’s top five markets remained unchanged from October, with Italy topping the leaderboard for the ninth consecutive month.

In contrast with previous months which had seen Italy register growth over pre-pandemic numbers, in November, the Italian market suffered a drop of 8.2% in passenger numbers mainly due to a decrease in seat capacity.

Italy was followed by the United Kingdom and Germany, both of which continued to recover at a slow pace.

France and Poland, which ranked fourth and fifth, registered growth of 33.8% and 39.8% respectively compared to 2019 levels.

The Polish market achieved a high seat load factor of 91% despite an increase in seat capacity over 2019, and was one of five markets in the top 10 drivers of passenger traffic for November to exceed the 90% mark.

The airport’s winter schedule officially came into effect in November, with one of the highlights for the month being the return of Air Serbia following the airline’s temporary suspension of services at the onset of the pandemic.