September became the third consecutive month to register more than half a million passenger movements this year with a total of 531,962 passengers welcomed at Malta International Airport. This translates to an increase of 5.8% over the same month in 2015, the airport said today.

It said that September's upturn was bolstered by improved connectivity to the Maltese islands throughout the summer. Seat capacity, which indicates the number of seats available to Malta, registered a 4.2% rise over last year; a natural development following the combined efforts to improve the airport's network.

"Moreover, at 87.5%, September's seat load factor (SLF) experienced a growth of 1.3 percentage points, indicating that airlines were very efficient in filling up these available seats."

Malta's top drivers of traffic remain the UK, Italy, Germany, France and Spain, with all five markets registering varying degrees of growth ranging from 2% to 14%.

The growth of the French market mainly stems from an increased capacity to one of France's major airports, Paris Orly. Furthermore, September marks Spain's third consecutive appearance among Malta International Airport's top five markets, following added flights on the Madrid route.

MIA said that "although they did not secure a spot among the top five markets last month, both Poland and Switzerland experienced a remarkable hike in passenger movements compared to 2015, amounting to 36% and 14%, respectively."

Up until the 30th of September, Malta International Airport hosted 3,894,040 passengers – a growth of 7.5% over last year. Aircraft movements grew by 2.4% while seat capacity increased by 5.3%. The seat load factor also rose to 83.4% compared to 81.7% last year.

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