Malta International Airport registers a strong increase in passenger movements in 2013. Italy confirms its place as the most preferred destination of the Maltese and Italian tourists remain in second place in terms of arrivals to Malta.
The Malta International Airport (MIA) recently announced the 2013 results of passenger movements. According to the Chief Executive Officer of the MIA, Markus Klaushofer, passenger movements in 2013 were at an all-time record of 4 million with an annual increase of 10.5%. The CEO explained that notwithstanding the international crisis the last four years registered record volumes of passengers.
There was also a growth in traffic between Malta and the Italian airports with an increase of 17.8% equivalent to approximately 110,000 additional units. Various factors contributed to such growth including the introduction in 2013 of a new route by Ryanair to Bergamo airport and the increase of Air Malta flights to Catania airport during the winter season.
The MIA is forecasting a further growth of 2% in passenger movements in 2014, thus reaching another annual record of over 4.1 million passengers.
Furthermore, on 16th January the National Statistics Office published the latest results on the influx of tourists. According to the NSO, Italy confirms its place as the most preferred tourist destination by the Maltese people. In the first 11 months of 2013, out of 320,000 tourists leaving Malta, circa 100,000 headed to Italy (an increase of 12.2% when compared to November 2012). The other preferred destinations were the United Kingdom (c. 76,400 equivalent to +11.17%), France (c. 15,600 equivalent to +8.25%) and Germany (c. 15,500 equivalent to -2.25%).
In 2013, the number of tourists arriving in Malta was of 1,600,000, with an increase of 9.6% when compared to 2012. The Italian tourists remain in the second place (over 233,000 equivalent to +15.6%) after the English tourists (c. 454,000 equivalent to +3%) and they are followed by tourists from Germany (c. 147,000 equivalent to +7%) and France (c. 116,000 equivalent to +8%).
