Malta International Airport welcomed 110,346 passengers in October, raising its year-to-date traffic up to 1,661,700 passenger movements - a drop of 73.8 per cent when compared to the same period in 2019.
The airport operator in a statement on Wednesday said its financial performance continues to be severely impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic’s effects on both its aviation and non-aviation activities.
Total revenue between January and September 2020 amounted to €24.9 million, translating into a drop of 67.7% over the same period in 2019.
The company said its cost-cutting and liquidity preservation programme, introduced in April, had enabled it to register a significant decrease in both its staff costs and operating costs.
"The lowering of staff costs by 24.1% for the first three quarters of 2020 resulted from a reduction in management and employee wages from April until July 2020, together with contributions from the government Covid-19 wage scheme," it said.
The company registered a decrease of 38.4% in operating costs thanks to the revision of its maintenance programme to focus solely on essential works.
It said the forthcoming winter period is expected to be the most challenging in living memory. It was confident, however, that the financial resilience amassed over the past decade together with the right team of employees put it in a good position to continue facing Covid-related challenges and eventually emerge from this crisis.
'Best guess' for recovery is second half of 2021
MIA on Wednesday also held its annual general meeting during which CEO Alan Borg said that with significant travel restrictions still in place, demand for overseas travel remained weak.
A change in consumer behaviour, which has seen booking periods shortened to one or two weeks, has made it difficult to plan for capacity as the industry enters the winter scheduling months.
Uniformly structured health and safety measures as well as news of a possible COVID-19 vaccine, were welcomed by the industry, Borg said, however the extremely cautious approach by partner airlines made a best guess for the start of a recovery in the second half of 2021.
“We remain committed to working with the government and the Malta Tourism Authority to chart a sustainable course of recovery as well as looking to medium term investment to aid that recovery,” Borg said.
Another record in 2019
The airport experienced a good year in 2019, setting its 10th record year with 7.3 million passengers carried, which increased by 7.4% over the previous year and had doubled in a decade.
Keeping the diversification of its business at roughly 70% aviation and 30% non-aviation, MIA saw €100.2 million in total revenue, with €33.9 million in profit. Net profits increased by 12% at €3.3 million over the previous year.
The AGM was told that terms of investments, the airport will be looking towards its newly built multi-story car park, which was recently completed within its €20 million budget and has provided an additional 1,300 parking spaces.
Car rental companies will be moving their operations there, and next year photovoltaic panels will be installed on the roof of the building to offset some of the company’s carbon footprint.
Works on a cargo village, with the extension of a cargo warehouse and a new car park have almost been completed, with construction on a new warehouse due to being shortly.
Additionally, MIA will continue on “behind the scenes” work related to the Skyparks 2 project, with design work on the commercial areas approaching the final stages. The company is currently also in the process of adjudicating proposals for a hotel operator for the project, with a final decision on the matter expected at the end of 2021.
Announced in January 2019, Skyparks 2 will take up some 4,600 square metres, almost double the footprint of the current Skyparks, with some €40 million initially being earmarked for the project.