Malta International Airport has said in a statement today that it is forecasting that passenger numbers for 2012 will be slightly less than the record achieved in 2011, i.e. c. 3.4 million, down 2.8% from the all-time record of 3.5 million achieved last year, but over 3% more than the previous record achieved in 2010. This was announced by Chief Executive Officer, Mr Markus Klaushofer.
Mr Klaushofer said that the forecast for 2012 is being based on various considerations. “An important factor is that the European economic crisis will lessen demand for travel. This will adversely affect our core markets – UK, Italy, Germany, France and Spain. In the first three months we will surely see a decrease in traffic, whereas in the Summer Schedule we are envisaging a consolidation of last year’s results,” he added.
The new routes for 2012 will be the Air France operation to Toulouse as of April, and Ryanair’s announced new destinations as from May: London-Stansted (UK), Bournemouth (UK), Malmo (Sweden), Oslo-Rygge (Norway), Turin (Italy), Wroclaw (Poland) and Kaunas (Lithuania).
Mr Klaushofer referred to the Traffic Results of 2011. Aircraft movements at Malta Airport decreased slightly by 914 which is 3.2% less when compared to 2010 whilst seat capacity decreased by 41,409, which is equivalent to 0.9%.
Air Malta had almost 48% of the traffic which is equivalent to 1,678,484 passenger movements, registering a negligible decrease of -0.2% on figures registered in 2010. It is followed by Ryanair with a traffic share of 22.4% equivalent to 787,175 passenger movements meaning an increase of 16.5% and easyJet with a traffic share of 9.7% equivalent to 341,204 passenger movements meaning an increase of 12.6%.
Malta Airport’s main markets for 2011 were the United Kingdom with a share of 31% translating into 1,086,123 passenger movements – +5.2% over 2010. This was followed by Italy with 17.6% or 616,666 passenger movements – i.e. -3.9% over 2010; and Germany with 14.8% or 520,706 passenger movements, resulting in an increase of 23.2% over last year.
Legacy carriers have increased slightly their passenger numbers marginally – +0.8%, with their overall market share registering a decrease of slightly over 3 percentage points (62% in 2010, 58.8% in 2011). Low Cost carriers increased their market share by two percentage points: (32% in 2010, 34% in 2011) with an increase of 14.6% in passenger movements. Charter operations have also increased their share from total traffic (6% in 2010) to 7% in 2011 with a staggering increase of almost 22% in their passenger movements.
The CEO also announced that in the first part of 2012, Malta International Airport will be celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the inauguration of the Air Terminal, which was officially unveiled on Saturday 8th February 1992. He unveiled a special logo being used and gave details on a number of events and initiatives to celebrate this anniversary, which will culminate in the unveiling of the SkyParks Business Centre in the summer.
Mr Klaushofer concluded that although expressing satisfaction at the results achieved in 2011 by all the stakeholders involved in the tourism industry, he invited everyone to remain cautious on the outcome of 2012.
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