Almost 311,700 passengers travelled through Malta International Airport in July, recouping 39% of July 2019 traffic levels, with the UK ranked second among MIA’s top five markets for July, the Airport said.

MIA stated that “this shows that Malta is recovering at a slower pace than its Southern European counterparts whose recovery rate for July averaged at 57% according to Airports Council International data.”

The Airport explained that seat capacity deployed on routes to and from Malta was just 35.5% below 2019 levels, with the seat load factor (SLF) for the month, which measures the occupancy of the seats available, standing at 52.6% compared to 87.0% in July 2019.

During July, French flag-carrier Air France launched three weekly flights to Paris Charles de Gaulle airport and two brand-new routes to Chania and Cagliari were added to Malta International Airport’s summer schedule, among other traffic developments.

There was also the return of the UK among Malta International Airport’s top five markets following the easing of travel restrictions between the two countries and the subsequent increase in flight frequencies on several UK routes as well as the introduction of additional routes by a number of airlines.

The UK moved up four places from June, displacing Spain from the market leaderboard and pushing each one of the German, French and Polish markets down one position compared to June. Italy, on the other hand, retained its top spot with 60,388 passenger movements.

MIA highlighted that an industry assessment issued by Eurocontrol on 22 July noted that European traffic was clearly on the increase in the 10 weeks leading to the publication of this report, with domestic travel still dominating passenger traffic.

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