During the January-March 2006 period, the number of Maltese passengers departing by air and sea amounted to 42,213, a decrease of 10.3 per cent over the same period a year ago, the National Statistics Office said yesterday.

Of these, around 97 per cent spent less than six months away from Malta.

In the period under review, the most frequent destination was the United Kingdom, accounting for 29.2 per cent of the total number of Maltese travelling abroad by air and sea. This was followed by other main destinations – Italy, Belgium and Germany.

In the first three months of 2006, male outbound passengers significantly exceeded female ones, the former accounting for 66.5 per cent of the total.

The greatest proportion of outbound passengers – 46.0 per cent – were aged 25-44 years, followed by passengers in the 45-64 and 15-24 years age brackets, at 44.5 and 5.8 per cent respectively.