Passenger crossings between Malta and Gozo were sharply up in the last quarter of 2021 compared to 2020, and only slightly below the pre-COVID figures in 2019, official figures issued on Monday show. 

1,185,502 passengers used the traditional and the fast ferries between October and December, compared to 876,054 in the last three months of 2020 and 1,355,243 in the last quarter of 2019.

The figures for 2021 show a sizeable chunk of passenger traffic being taken up by the fast ferries, which handled 118,714 passengers on trips between Valletta and Mġarr between October and December.

The traditional ferry carried 1,066,788 passengers between Mġarr and Ċirkewwa during the fourth quarter of 2021, an increase of 21.8 per cent when compared to the corresponding quarter of 2020. The highest number of passengers was recorded in October - 392,221 or 36.8 per cent of the total for the quarter. When compared to the previous year, the number of vehicles increased by 10.0 per cent, totalling 429,806. The number of trips during the fourth quarter amounted to 8,479, an increase of 4.8 per cent over the same period in 2020. December registered the highest number of trips - 2,860 or 33.7 per cent of total trips for the quarter.

The fast ferries from Valletta to Mgarr made  2,736 trips. November saw the highest number of trips - 1,025 or 37.5 per cent of total trips for the quarter, whereas the highest number of passengers was in October at 46,853 or 39.5 per cent for the quarter.