Reference is made to the article entitled “Air Malta sees 3.7% fall in passenger numbers in October” (TMIS, 27 December 2009).
The Association of European Airlines figures released last week clearly show that Air Malta increased passengers by 5.1 per cent during October 2009 and not a drop of 3.7 per cent as quoted in the article. Air Malta also achieved a load factor of 70.8 per cent (not 59 per cent). During this month the airline saw a reduction in freight of 4.2 per cent.
Considering that October 2008 was also a record traffic month, and 2009 will be remembered for its economic recession, these figures hint that the airline’s strategy is bearing fruit and is managing to minimise the effects of the international financial crisis.
The figures released by the AEA also show that Air Malta was one of the handful of AEA member airlines that have seen passenger growth during this month. Air Malta’s relatively positive performance as regards passenger figures was also reflected in the January-October figures, which show that Air Malta saw a reduction of only 2.9 per cent compared to AEA’s average which stands at -6.8 per cent during the same period.
These figures also confirm that Air Malta has the potential to increase tourism arrivals following the decision to increase capacity. During January till October Air Malta increased capacity by 5.8 per cent. This year the Maltese airline floated more seats on Germany, France, Switzerland and Italy as well as to Central and Eastern Europe. Apart from increased frequencies, last summer Air Malta also started new services to Paris Charles deGaule airport, Stuttgart and Verona.
This growth in passengers does not signal that we are out of the tourism recession or that Air Malta’s revenue is also up. Our average fares are lower as Air Malta has priced aggressively especially in France and Germany with a resulting October traffic growth of +15 per cent and +14 per cent respectively in these markets. UK figures were hurt by the declining value of the sterling, however, despite this, Air Malta still managed to attract two per cent more passengers from the UK in October.
Stephen Gauci
Section Head Public Relations
Air Malta plc