There were a total of 2,970,830 passenger movements at the Malta International Airport in 2007, an increase of 10.36 per cent over 2006, with low cost carrier Ryanair showing the largest growth rate.

The MIA results were made public during a press briefing session at the Phoenicia Hotel where new CEO Julian Jaeger was presented to the media and gave his first briefing in his new role. The European average growth rate was 5.6 per cent.

Aircraft movements, said Mr Jaeger, were also up by 10.7 per cent, with 27,356 in 2007 compared to 24,711 in the previous year while seat capacity increased from 4,244,443 in 2007 compared to 3,713,819 in 2006, an increase of 14.3 per cent.

Mr Jaeger said the seat load factor decreased by two per cent to 70 per cent, meaning that there are more free seats to be filled in 2008.

Low cost carriers registered the largest growth with an increase of 237,104 passengers. Legacy carriers registered an increase of 34,462, a 5.3 per cent increase over 2006 with Air Malta registering an increase of 16,223, a one per cent increase over 2006.

The main markets performed very well with 101,800 more passengers coming from the UK (10 per cent) compared to the previous year. The Italian market also grew by 16.5 per cent over 2006 with 66,000 more passengers. Germany also performed well with a 17 per cent increase over the previous year with 62,000 additional movements. Ireland and Spain saw explosive growth due to the introduction of new routes with 58, 687 (115.2 per cent) and 53,710 (74.5 per cent) passenger movements respectively. Movements from both these countries are expected to increase again in 2008.

However, decreases were registered in movements from France (4.6 per cent), Belgium (3.3 per cent), the Netherlands (8.2 per cent), Austria (12.6 per cent) and Switzerland (2.5 per cent).

Air Malta remained the top carrier with 1,629,343 passengers, followed by newcomer Ryanair with 222,825, British Airways with 173,614 movements and Alitalia with 151,558. These were followed by British Jet, Lufthansa, Emirates, German Wings, Austrian and Clickair. British Jet and Austrian registered decreases of 16 per cent and 29 per cent respectively.

Charter airlines followed the global trend of recession with 372,797 movements compared to 381,970 in 2006, a two per cent drop.

Low cost carriers

Ryanair’s 222,825 passengers translate into 78.47 per cent of all LCC movements and 7.5 per cent of all traffic. German Wings carried 32,936 – 11.60 per cent of LCCS and 1.11 per cent of total traffic. Clickair carried 10,412 – 3.67 per cent and 0.35 per cent of LCC and total traffic respectively. Air Berlin carried 6,352 passengers – 2.24 per cent of the LCC market and 0.39 of the total market. Other carriers had 11,453 passengers – 4.03 per cent of LCC movements and 0.39 per cent of all traffic.

Low cost carriers accounted for 9.56 per cent of total passenger movements through the MIA. New carriers that will begin operations in 2008 will include Vueling to Madrid, Norwegian to Oslo, Volareweb to Milan and Easyjet to Gatwick and Manchester. British Jet has decided to pull out but have signed an agreement with Air Malta to take their passengers.

Top destinations

The top destination was London Gatwick with 304,460 movements followed by Manchester with 237,124 and Frankfurt with 189,862 movements. The rest of the leader board included London Heathrow, Rome Fiumicino, Milan Malpensa, London Luton, Munich, Brussels and Birmingham (in order of preference).

Routes

Mr Jaeger explained that the MIA had identified other areas that are considered underserved but have a good potential to attract new business to Malta. These include Spain and Portugal, France (excluding Paris), Switzerland (excluding Zurich), Germany (mainly Dortmund, Nuremberg and all former East German cities excluding Berlin), Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Ukraine, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Romania, Oslo and Copenhagen.

This incentive consists of up to 60 per cent in reductions on passenger service charges and applies over a three year period. There will also be a scheme for new routes whereby up to 40 per cent reductions on passenger service charges over a three-year period will be applied for routes that have not been served in the past 12 months. These new incentives along with a general good feeling in the sector should see passenger movement increase to 3.18 million in 2008 – an increase of 6.8 per cent.

Investment

The MIA is also continuing with investment to boost its passenger and aircraft handling capacity. Work has already started to resurface taxiways and runways while e9 million will be spent on upgrading the taxiways and turning circle to decrease turnaround time and aircraft handling. This is expected to be completed by 2010.

Answering questions put by The Malta Independent, Mr Jaeger said that the MIA will still be able to cater for growth until that time. Post 2010, the MIA will therefore have the capacity to handle even further growth.

Mr Jaeger pointed out that the MIA can handle the A380 Super Jumbo and that discussions are underway with US carriers. However, he said that he did not envisage direct flights to the US within the next few years. Emirates, however, will be increasing their services to a daily flight to Dubai via Larnaca in Cyprus.

There has also been e2.8 million invested in the terminal itself to cater for the Schengen Treaty.

The modifications are complete, yet the airport must wait for the treaty to come into effect at the end of March.

There will also be an additional E4 million investment to expand the security area, to relocate the VIP lounge and add retail space.

TMID also asked Mr Jaeger about the recent adoption of an EU report on airport charges which had initially indicated that MIA would be one of the airports affected. He said that the issue at present is who should be affected and that the threshold of movement was to be increased to five million. “I think our charges are reasonable as they are. We do not foresee any dramatic changes,” he said.

Mr Jaeger, replying to a question put by another newspaper, ruled out the basing of aircraft fleets here in Malta.

TMID put another question to Mr Jaeger, saying that Ryanair had reiterated its desire to base its fleet in Malta. He conceded that there were discussions between the carrier and the government in this regard, but said that he could not offer one thing to one carrier and another set of charges to another simply to have a base in Malta.

“We want to see them grow, but we cannot have two weights and two measures,” he said. TMID again prompted: “So the reasons are financial?” to which he replied, “Yes, they are.”