The Maltese passport has dropped one place to joint eighth in a global index ranking the world's most powerful passports. 

It is based on the number of destinations passport holders can access without a prior visa and was drawn up by the country's former cash-for-passports scheme concessionaires, Henley and Partners.

Published annually, the Henley Passport Index for 2022 ranked Malta’s passport as the eighth strongest in the world, down one spot from the seventh place it held last year.

The country’s passport entitles holders to visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 185 destinations, according to data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

Malta has fluctuated between joint seventh and eighth places for the last four years. In 2010 it held its lowest ranking, at 10th place. 

Japan leads scoreboard

The country was awarded the same amount of points this year as in 2021, however, Japan, which again topped the ranking this year saw its score increase by one point, pushing several countries into a lower position.  

Japan was ranked as having the strongest passport with a visa-free or visa-on-arrival score of 193, followed by Singapore and South Korea in second place, scoring 192. Germany and Spain are in joint third place.

The 2022 rankings published by Henley and Partners.

EU member states make up much of the top 10 spots. 

At the other end of the scale, Afghanistan’s passport continues to be ranked as the least powerful of all countries, with Syria and Iraq just ahead.

According to the Switzerland-based company, the index and its contents are based on data provided by the International Air Transport Authority (IATA) and “supplemented, enhanced and updated using extensive in-house research and open-source online data”.

It said that despite Japan, Singapore and South Korea having the world's most powerful passports, its holders enjoyed the least travel freedom. 

According to IATA's latest statistics, international passenger demand in the Asia-Pacific region has only reached 17% of pre-Covid levels, having hovered below 10% for most of the past two years.

This figure is far behind the global trend where markets in Europe and North America have recovered to around 60% of pre-crisis travel mobility levels.

Dr Marie Owens Thomsen, Chief Economist at IATA, said passenger numbers should reach 83% of pre-pandemic levels in 2022. “By next year, many markets should see traffic reach or exceed pre-pandemic levels, while we expect this to be the case for the industry as a whole in 2024.”

Cash-for-passports

In 2013 Henley & Partners signed a 10-year contract with the government to market and process applications for the island's controversial cash-for-passports programme.

Malta’s lucrative golden passports scheme, originally known as the Individual Investor Programme (IIP), targets high net worth elite seeking easy and uninhibited access to the EU.  

It generated more than €800 million for Malta between its launch in 2014 and 2020 and was celebrated by the Labour government as laying golden eggs for the country.

However the sales have been mired in controversy for several years and the scheme is currently the subject of a legal threat from the European Commission.

Brussels believes Malta is violating EU law by selling passports that allow the bearer unrestricted access to the union. 

In April, senior government sources said they were mulling phasing out the scheme. The government has not commented officially.