Malta International Airport (MIA) is expected to handle a “historic milestone” of eight million passengers in 2024.
The announcement was made during MIA’s yearly traffic press conference held earlier today, where CEO Alan Borg presented the company’s results for 2023.
Additionally, MIA announced that the full-year traffic in 2023 amounted to 7.8 million passengers, an increase of 6.7 per cent over pre-pandemic numbers.
These results represent a growth of almost 500,000 passenger movements, which is comparable to the throughput of an average winter month for the airport.
In parallel, the airport also outperformed pre-pandemic levels in terms of seat load factor, as each month of the year registered varying degrees of growth over 2019, peaking in August with an all-time high of 91.4 per cent.
In December, 529,041 passengers travelled through the airport, translating into a double-digit growth of 10.8 per cent over 2019.
This result is considered as significant in light of the fact that passenger movements surpassed the half million mark in December for the first time in the airport’s history. This milestone was also recorded in November, the first month that the record figure was reached in 2023.
Furthermore, 78.3 per cent of the seats available on flights operated to and from MIA were occupied throughout December.
The top driver for traffic throughout the month was Italy, which held on to its top spot in the airport’s market leader board with 116,863 passenger movements and a market share of just over 22 per cent. Italy was closely followed by the United Kingdom, Poland, Germany, and France.
For 2024, the company aims to reach €126 million in total revenue with a projected net profit of €42 million. Additionally, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) is expected to reach €79 million while capital expenditure (CAPEX) is expected to be €45 million.
During the press conference, Mr Borg also provided an update on MIA’s ongoing plans to further expand the airport’s capacity.
This year, the company is expected to conclude the first phases of the westward expansion of the terminal and the construction of Apron X, while commencing works on the VIP Terminal and SkyParks Business Centre 2 developments.
Targeted controls will take place ahead of the 31st Ministerial Council of the OSCE
The opening was announced at an event held on 27th November
The ‘exponential’ increase was driven by growing interest from domestic households, with workplace pensions remaining very limited