The European Commission has approved €12 million in state aid for the Malta International Airport to compensate for the impact of COVID-19 restrictions on its operations last year.

Operators of the Malta International Airport saw traffic and profitability nosedive between March 21 last year and June 30 due to the measures imposed by Malta to limit the spread of the virus.

At the time Malta had entered a month-long shutdown with all non-esential shops and services cloesd amid a surge in COVID-19 cases. 

Malta was also on the red list of the UK, one of its biggest travel markets, at the time. 

In a statement, the European Commission said that the €12 million grant from the government to cover the three-month period was in line with EU state aid rules. 

It said it had assessed the measure under the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, which enables it to approve state aid measures granted by member states to compensate specific companies or sectors for the damage directly caused by exceptional occurrences.

"The Commission found that the Maltese measure will compensate damage that is directly linked to the coronavirus pandemic," it said.

 It also found that the measure was "proportionate", as the compensation does not exceed what is necessary to make good for the damage.

It concluded that the damage compensation measure is in line with EU state aid rules.

More information on the actions taken by the commission to address the economic impact of the pandemic can be found here.