More than half a million passengers travelled between Malta and Gozo in October 2023

October was the most popular month for visitors to travel between Malta and Gozo in 2023’s final quarter. In total, the National Statistics Office (NSO) highlighted that the 10th month of the year saw 544,654 passengers traveling between the two islands. This represents 37.8 per cent of the total passengers for the quarter.

These figures were published on Tuesday (today) by NSO analysing sea transport between Malta and Gozo during 2023’s fourth quarter.

Overall, a total of 1,440,644 passengers travelled to and from Mġarr and Ċirkewwa between October and December 2023, an increase of 9.6 per cent when compared to the corresponding quarter of 2022.

The number of trips during the quarter amounted to 8,513 a decrease of 4.2 per cent over the same period in 2022. As expected, given the number of passengers, October registered the highest number of trips at 3,118 or 36.6 per cent of total trips for the quarter.

Throughout the whole year, passenger and vehicle traffic originating from Ċirkewwa were busiest on Fridays and Saturdays. On the other hand, from the Mġarr terminal, passenger traffic was busiest on Saturdays and Sundays while vehicle traffic was highest on Sundays and Mondays.

During the fourth quarter of 2023, a total of 1,672 trips between Mġarr and Valletta were carried out, transporting a total of 172,169 passengers.

When compared to the same quarter in 2022, the number of trips increased by 145.9 per cent and the number of passengers increased by 106.5 per cent. Even in this case, October registered the highest number of trips (666 or 39.8 per cent) as well as the highest number of passengers, that of 82,387 or 47.9 per cent for the quarter.

When including both the Gozo Channel ferry service and the fast ferry service during 2023, the number of trips increased by 2.9 per cent ( 1,187 trips) when compared to 2022.

NSO also noted an increase in vehicle movements between the islands, with a total of 78,236 (four per cent) over the previous years. On the other hand, the number of passengers also went up by 874,393 or 15.4 per cent.

During 2023, July recorded the highest number of trips totalling 4,073 while August recorded the highest number of passengers and vehicles with 693,492 and 200,118 respectively.