More than the equivalent of Malta’s entire population passed through the airport last month: a record total of 507,646 passengers.

August will therefore go down in history as the best month ever for Malta International Airport.

By comparison, ten years ago the airport had a throughput of 355,000 passenger movements in August. This reflects an increase of 43%, or 152,000 passenger movements.

“These figures are a reflection of Malta’s exceptional recent performance in the tourism industry,” said MIA CEO Markus Klaushofer.

“MIA is constantly investing in marketing initiatives, airport infrastructure and providing a high quality service to hundreds of thousands of passengers who keep coming back.”

“The results fill us with enthusiasm to keep upping our game. We provide the first and last impression to every tourist who visits Malta and we accept that hugely important commitment with pride and dedication,” he added.

Tourism Minister Karmenu Vella warmly welcomed the announcement which he described as a milestone for MIA and the tourism industry as a whole. He said this year’s results were extremely positive and emphasised that more effort would now be made to continue increasing numbers in the shoulder and winter months to further ensure the sustainability of this vital industry for Malta’s economy.

Malta Tourism Authority CEO Josef Formosa Gauci said the excellent results in August and previous months this year were a result of the collaboration and work carried out by the Tourism Ministry, MTA and MIA.

“The right decisions were taken to increase seat capacity to Malta to enable such results,” he said, adding that MTA would continue to work hard on accessibility and marketing to ensure these positive trends continue.

The driver behind August’s record passenger movements came from an increase of 11.2% in seat capacity, thanks in part to MIA’s efforts to increase routes and airlines.

Passenger movements are calculated by adding the number of arrivals and departures, meaning a passenger who enters and leaves Malta in the same month is counted twice.

Four of Malta’s five major markets registered growth in August. Italian passengers increased by 17.7%, while passengers from France and Germany grew by 9% and 3.9% respectively. The smallest growth was registered by UK passengers, an increase of 1.1%.

Between January and August, this year has already seen an increase of 8.7% over the same period last year. Aircraft movements registered an increase of 7% while seat capacity is up by 8.5%.

  Overview   1 Jan - 31 Aug 2013 % Change* 1 Aug – 31 Aug 2013 % Change* Passenger Movements 2,705,436 8.7% 507,646 9.9% Aircraft Movements 20,732 7.0% 3,558 10.8% Cargo and Mail (in tonnes) 10,645 -7.2% 1,079 -13.1% Seat Capacity 3,467,453 8.5% 597,565 11.2% Seat Load Factor 78.0% 0.1 PPD 85.0% -0.9 PPD MTOW (in tonnes) 1,727,669 7.1% 284,361 8.1%       Top Destinations (by Country) Country 1 Jan - 31 Aug 2013 % Change* 1 Aug – 31 Aug 2013 % Change* UNITED KINGDOM 767,924 3.9% 123,580 1.1% ITALY 493,177 16.8% 96,436 17.7% GERMANY 372,712 -0.1% 69,654 3.9% FRANCE 165,263 10.7% 33,486 9.0% SPAIN 121,911 -3.5% 32,705 -0.2%       Top Destinations (by Airport) Airport 1 Jan - 31 Aug 2013 % Change* 1 Aug – 31 Aug 2013 % Change* LONDON - GATWICK 177,677 5.4% 26,466 0.7%   FRANKFURT 155,836 7.0% 29,564 31.7%   ROME - FIUMICINO 141,782 3.5% 25,875 3.2%   LONDON - HEATHROW 126,671 0.7% 17,338 2.0%   MANCHESTER 113,447 2.3% 17,190 -9.1%