During the month of August, Air Malta registered a 35 per cent increase in passengers on its Malta-based routes compared to last year and carried a total of 244,799 passengers to and from Malta.

August was the airline’s busiest month this year.

“For another month Air Malta was one of the main contributors to the 9.5% growth registered by Malta International Airport during August.

In addition to that, during this month, the Maltese airline carried almost 11,000 passengers on 5th Freedom routes, namely Catania - Vienna, Catania – London Southend and Cagliari – London Southend routes,” the airline said in a statement.

Paul Sies, Air Malta’s Chief Commercial Officer said, “Every month, over the past year, we have increased our passenger loads substantially when compared to the previous year. This month, once again, we achieved an average seat factor of 83%. During August we operated 1,746 flights, an increase of 26% more flights than last year.”

Clifford Chetcuti, Air Malta’s Chief Executive added, “This growth in our busiest month of the year is welcome news for Air Malta especially because historically flights in August have a very high seat load factor. In the coming months, we will continue to focus to enhance our operations to match this increasing passenger demand.”

Air Malta Chairman Charles Mangion added, “Yet again we continued to see double-digit growth figures in passengers. Despite these good results we need to continue actively selling the additional capacity we floated on the market this winter during which we will maintain many of the routes we introduced this year and focus our marketing and sales efforts in the German market with the launch of flights to Berlin, Hamburg and Leipzig this November.”

Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi said: “Since January, Air Malta has carried over 370,000 (+35%) more passengers on its whole network. Together with other tourism stakeholders, the airline is working hard to bring more tourists to the islands especially during the shoulder and winter months for the benefit of the whole Maltese economy.”