Malta International Airport plc (MIA) announced on Tuesday (yesterday) that the airport saw heavy traffic in April, amounting to 708,388 movements.

This marks an increase of 8.4 per cent over 2019 levels, a total boosted by the launch of the airport’s new summer schedule and Easter holidays.

“Easter weekend – 7th to 10th April,” the company reported, “was the month’s busiest weekend as 98,449 passengers passed through Malta International Airport’s doors.”

The main driver of this traffic, MIA said, was the Italian market, followed by the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. Notably, Spain came fifth after having been absent from this leader board for six months.

MIA attributed this Spanish resurgence to the resumption of flights to Seville and Valencia as well as increased flight frequencies to Barcelona as part of the airport’s summer schedule.

“April’s positive traffic result,” MIA wrote, “was registered on the back of an increase of 6.8 per cent over 2019 in the seat capacity deployed on flights to and from Malta, and a strong seat load factor (SLF) of 84.6 per cent.”