A total of 1,321,429 passengers travelled between Malta and Gozo during the fourth quarter of last year, up by 5.4 per cent when compared to the corresponding quarter in 2017, the National Statistics Office (NSO) said.

The highest number of passengers was recorded in October – 494,964 or 37.5 per cent of the total for the quarter.

The number of vehicles increased by 8.9 per cent, totalling 398,596.

The number of trips amounted to 5,820, an increase of 7.0 per cent over the same quarter in 2017.

Most trips took place in October – 2,088 or 35.9 per cent of total trips for the quarter.

Annual Perspective: 2018 Movements between Malta and Gozo continued to increase.

Overall, the number of trips went up by 1,090 or 4.8 per cent, over 2017.

Vehicle movements between the islands increased by 115,880, or 7.5 per cent, over the previous year, while the number of passengers went up by 374,478 or 7.0 per cent.

As in previous years, August recorded the highest number of trips, 2,292 or 9.7 per cent of the total.

August also registered the largest share of vehicles and passengers crossing between the two islands, 172,120 and 620,042, respectively.

Passenger traffic originating from Ċirkewwa was busiest on Fridays and Saturdays, whereas the highest volumes from Mġarr were recorded on Sundays and Saturdays.