Ryanair carried more than 50% of MIA passengers last year

Ryanair carried more than half the passengers who flew in or out of Malta in 2025, with the low-cost carrier consolidating its unofficial position as the country's biggest airline. 

Data provided by Malta International Airport (MIA) on Wednesday revealed that more than 5.1 million of the record 10 million passengers who travelled through MIA last year flew Ryanair - a 14 per cent year-on-year increase and giving the airline a 51 per cent market share.

KM Malta Airlines, the official national airline, carried 17 per cent of all MIA passengers - a decline of 8 per cent. Easyjet, Wizz Air and Lufthansa rounded out the top five.  

Ryanair is Europe's biggest airline in passenger numbers and in 2023 its CEO Michael O'Leary had acknowledged that it was "probably true" that it was Malta's unofficial national airline.

Malta was connected to 111 different airports across 37 countries in 2025, with 34 airlines flying to and from MIA throughout the year. 

Winter traffic grew by 16 per cent year-on-year, significantly outpacing growth in the summer months by 5 percentage points.

The top airlines operating at MIA in 2025. Photo: MIA

UK regains top spot

Low-cost carriers like Ryanair, Wizz Air, Jet2 and Easyjet increased flight frequencies and added new routes, helping the UK just about regain its spot as MIA’s largest market in 2025 after being overtaken by Italy in previous years. 

One in every five passengers who went through MIA in 2025 was from the United Kingdom. Another one in five was Italian. Poland, Germany and France rounded out the airport’s top five markets.

MIA attributed the strong rebound in UK traffic, which rose 17 per cent year-on-year, to Ryanair launching flights to Glasgow, Easyjet introducing London Stansted flights and Jet2 adding Liverpool flights while extending its summer schedule into the winter months.

The rate of growth in UK traffic was, however, dwarfed by that from Poland, which saw 48.9 per cent year-on-year growth in passenger numbers. Passengers to and from Poland accounted for 9 per cent of all MIA traffic last year.

That growth was spurred by LOT Polish Airlines resuming flights to Malta with four weekly services to Poland’s capital Warsaw, coupled with Ryanair operating bi-weekly summer flights to Rzeszów and Wizz Air expanding its Warsaw service to operate a daily flight.

Gatwick, Fiumicino and then Catania 

London-Gatwick was the top destination for MIA passengers, with Rome's Fiumicino airport, Catania, Manchester and Munich also being major destinations. Together, those five airports accounted for 19 per cent of MIA traffic in 2025. 

Meanwhile, the airport also sought to add flag-carriers to its portfolio of airlines.  Of the four new airlines that started flights to Malta in 2025 - LOT Polish Airlines, Qatar Airways, SAS and Volotea – three are national airlines.

In 2026, the airport expects to host 33 routes within southern Europe, 27 routes in western Europe, 20 routes to northern Europe and 13 routes to eastern Europe, along with six routes to Scandinavia, eight routes to the Middle East and North Africa and one flight to North America.  

“Our focus remains on building a diversified route network for the Maltese Islands. In 2026, we will continue to grow connectivity across Eastern and Northern Europe and Scandinavia through the introduction of new routes, alongside the addition of weekly frequencies on a number of existing services, Senior Vice President for Traffic Development Alex Cardona said. “We are also set to introduce Malta’s first long-haul link to North America operated by a US carrier, with the launch of a new Delta Air Lines service to New York.”

Earlier on Wednesday, the airport's board informed shareholders that it would be extending airport CEO Alan Borg's contract by an additional three years through to 2030. 

The extension will ensure Borg remains in charge as MIA completes a major expansion project that will see the airport terminal expand by an extra 6,000 square metres.