NEWS | Wednesday, 30 January 2008

MIA targets more than three million passengers

Kurt Sansone

Malta International Airport plc is expecting to go above the record three million passenger mark by November this year.
Outlining the company’s traffic results for 2007, newly appointed CEO Julian Jaeger said that the airport handled a total of 2,980,257 passenger movements which represents a 10% increase over 2006.
Legacy carriers still form the bulk of MIA’s business mix with a share of 78%. In 2006 legacy carriers had a stronger bearing in MIA’s business mix at 84%.
Charter carriers also experienced a slight drop, now standing at 13% of the business mix.
With 2007 being the first full year of operation for major low cost carrier Ryanair, LCCs now carry almost 10% of passengers passing through MIA.
Passenger growth came primarily through low cost carriers, which carried an additional 237,104 passengers in 2007. But this growth did not come at the expense of legacy carrier including Air Malta.
Foreign legacy carriers carried an additional 34,463 passengers which represents an increase of 5.3% over 2006. Air Malta on its own carried an additional 16,223 passengers, which represents and increase of 1% over 2006.
Air Malta, responsible for 55% of total passenger movements, remains the single most important carrier to operate at MIA.
Jaeger said that the UK remained the main feeder market, increasing its share by 10%. Similar hefty increases were registered in other core markets such as Italy (+16.5%) and Germany (+17%).
During the presentation Jaeger also said that MIA was targeting over three million passengers in 2008 which would be a first for the airport.