Rise in passenger traffic at airport

Malta International Airport registered an increase of 8,000 passengers in 2003, halting the decline it has been experiencing since 2000.

MIA's Annual Statistical Review, released yesterday, shows that the nine per cent decrease in passengers from Germany and France was compensated by increases from Austria, Italy, the UK and other European countries.

MIA's CEO Peter Bolech said the company performed well last year considering that the travel and tourism industries were yet again hit by external negative influences such as SARS and the war in Iraq.

"The slow economic growth in Europe, especially in Germany, compounded matters further for Malta's sensitive tourism industry, which is broadly dependent on the influx of passengers from the continent," Mr Bolech said.

Passengers arriving from and departing to UK destinations account for 40 per cent of all international passenger movements followed by passengers from Italy, Germany and France, which together account for 33 per cent.

London's Gatwick airport remained the most popular airport for both outgoing and incoming passengers, followed by Manchester and London Heathrow airports. These top three airports accounted for 28 per cent of all passenger movements last year.

An increase of four per cent in aircraft movements was also registered but this was mainly attributed to more cargo flights and general aviation flights operating to MIA in 2003. On average, the number of scheduled and non-scheduled flights remained at the same levels of the previous year. En route traffic increased by 21 per cent with a total of 43,145 aircraft movements over Malta's airspace.

Air Malta, by far exceeded other airlines in the number of flights operated, with 61 per cent of all flights to and from Malta. Alitalia, Lufthansa and British Airways operated five, 3.1 and five per cent respectively.

The aircraft type most frequently used was the Boeing 737-300, with 10,221 movements, followed by the Airbus A320, close to 5,300 movements. The giant Antonov 124 visited Malta six times and the Jumbo Jet, the Boeing 747, flew on eight occasions.

August 22 saw the peak in the number of aircraft movements, when 119 movements were registered. The largest number of passengers was handled on August 19, when 16,116 passengers used the MIA.

MIA's website has also seen an increase in the number of hits. The site started with 220,000 hits per month in January 2003 and reached 900,000 hits in December.

A total of 74 per cent of MIA's commercial activity is generated within the Departure Hall area. The average spend per departing passenger at the tax free shops was of Lm9.04 in 2003.