A fast ferry service between Valletta and Gozo carried just under 250,000 passengers in its first four months of operation, statistics released on Monday showed. 

The service, which started on June 1 and is being run by two private operators, registered 245,958 passenger trips between that month and the end of September, with a peak in August. 

'Interest in service has picked up'

National Statistics Office figures suggest that interest in the service has picked up since it first began, with 69 per cent more passengers using the fast ferry in September compared to the first month of the service. 

While the Gozo Channel ferry service continues to service the vast majority of trips between the two islands, the statistics indicate that over the summer months, the fast ferry soaked up just over 12 per cent of all passengers between Malta and Gozo. 

Of the 1.6 million passenger trips recorded between Malta and Gozo in the July-September period, just over 200,000 came from the fast ferry. 

Travel between Malta and Gozo was up by a massive 25.6 per cent overall when compared to the same period of 2020, but remained below the highs reached in 2019, before the pandemic.  

Even when fast ferry trips are not factored into calculations, the Gozo Channel registered increases in the number of ferry trips, vehicles and passengers carried when compared to the summer of 2020.

Those numbers were up by 3 per cent, 5.7 per cent and 9.7 per cent respectively. August was the busiest month, the statistics show.