During the fourth quarter of 2019, sea transport between Malta and Gozo registered increases compared to the corresponding quarter of 2018, the NSO said.

A total of 1,355,243 passengers travelled between Malta and Gozo during the fourth quarter of 2019, up by 2.6 per cent when compared to the corresponding quarter in 2018. The highest number of passengers was recorded in October – 533,020 or 39.3 per cent of the total for the quarter. When comparing to the previous year, the number of vehicles increased by 6.8 per cent, totalling 425,767.

The number of trips amounted to 7,653, an increase of 31.5 per cent over the same period in 2018. The majority of trips took place in October – 2,712 or 35.4 per cent of total trips for the quarter.

Annual perspective

Movements between Malta and Gozo continued to increase. Overall the number of trips went up by 4,012 or 17.0 per cent, over 2018. Vehicle movements between the islands increased by 123,007 or 7.4 per cent over the previous year, while the number of passengers went up by 159,462 or 2.8 per cent.

As in previous years, August recorded the highest number of trips, 2,802 or 10.1 per cent of the total. August also registered the largest share of vehicles and passengers crossing between the two islands, 187,536 and 649,878, respectively.

Passenger and vehicle traffic originating from Ċirkewwa was busiest on Friday and Saturday, whereas the highest numbers from Mġarr were recorded on Sunday and Saturday for passengers and Sunday and Monday for vehicles.