Like most other businesses, fuel stations have also experienced severe decrease in turnovers, Abigail Mamo, Chief Executive Officer of the Malta Chamber of SME, said

“I asked a number of them and, on average, there is currently a decrease of 50 per cent,” she added.

Abigail Mamo, CEO of the Chamber of SMEs

As schools remain closed and many employees work from home in what amounts to a partial lockdown, the traffic congestions present in many parts of the island, especially during the rush hours, are no more.

The reduction in the number of vehicles on roads has been so pronounced that a 50 per cent drop in the amount of nitrogen oxide (NO2) in the air has been recorded.

There were 397,508 licensed motor vehicles at the end of last year. The big bulk, 77.3 per cent, consisted of passenger cars, 13.7 per cent were commercial vehicles and 7.9 per cent were motorcycles/quadricycles and all-terrain vehicles (ATVs).

Enemed, which is responsible for the importation, distribution and wholesale of petroleum products for the inland market including the aviation sector, would not say whether and to what extent was the sale of fuel to both road vehicles and aircraft affected.

A spokesman said that although the company did understand that an article on the matter would be interesting to readers, one had to appreciate that both inland and jet fuel markets are open to competition and that, in fact, Enemed faces stiff competition in both cases. “The information requested is confidential and [we] would prefer not to divulge [it],” he added.

Air transport has also been severely hit by the restrictions. Malta International Airport said last month that the COVID-19 outbreak and ensuing developments severely impacted passenger traffic in the first weeks of March.

Flight cancellations at the time had already led to a drop of 14 per cent in seat capacity between 1st March and 17th March and seat loads experienced a drop of 22.4 percentage points. The end result was a 38 per cent decline in traffic in the first 17 days of last month when compared to the same period in March 2019.

Figures for the whole of March on the MIA website are not available yet.