Malta has registered the third lowest growth in air passengers in the EU in 2004, figures published by Eurostat last week show.

Malta registered a 5.4 per cent increase with only Portugal (3.9 per cent), Luxembourg (4.1 per cent), and Greece (4.6 per cent) being lower.

In absolute figures, however, Malta with 2.7 million passenger movements outstripped countries like Estonia (0.9 million), Latvia (1 million), Lithuania (0.9 million), Luxembourg (1.5 million), Slovenia (1 million) and Slovakia (1 million).

Slovakia saw a 73 per cent rise in passenger numbers, followed by the three Baltic States.