Last week, Malta International Airport plc published its customary announcement at the start of the year, confirming the traffic results for the previous 12-month period and providing traffic and financial guidance for the current calendar year.
Given the reports across social media on December 30 that the airport operator had just achieved the milestone of 10 million passengers in 2025, the confirmation that total passenger movements amounted to 10.06 million last year was not of major relevance to the investing community.
However, the presentation sent to the press with the overall traffic statistics for last year contain important elements that are noteworthy when analysing the airport operator’s business model and growth trajectory.
2025 was another record year for MIA, with 12.3% growth in passenger volumes to 10.06 million compared to the previous record of 8.96 million passenger movements in 2024. Seat capacity rose by just over 13% from 2024 and the seat load factor fell slightly to 85.4%, which is still a very strong indicator.
MIA continued to diversify its connectivity last year with the airport being connected to 111 airports across 37 markets. The airport was served by 34 airlines throughout the year, with four new airlines being added in 2025.
The traffic results confirmed Ryanair’s dominance with a market share of 51%, followed by KM Malta Airlines (previously Air Malta) at 17.3%. While Ryanair achieved 14% growth in passenger movements to 5.12 million, KM Malta Airlines’ contracted 8% to 1.7 million. Low-cost airlines accounted for about 62.5% of the passenger traffic in 2025.
The UK and Italy were again the top markets, with a market share of 20% each, followed by Poland at 9%, after a 49% rise in passenger movements to 860,000. These three markets essentially account for half of the passenger movements through the air terminal.
Last week’s announcement and presentation noted that the number of passengers in December amounted to a monthly record of 709,352 passengers, 19.9% higher than the same month a year previously. Consequently, monthly passenger movements throughout 2025 exceeded those in 2024, and more importantly, the December growth rate of 19.9% was also the highest monthly growth rate registered in 2025. This augurs well for the first three months of 2026 until the summer schedule starts in April.
It is also important to note that the airport registered a 16% passenger growth during the shoulder months of January to March and October to December, while growth in the core summer period amounted to 11%. In absolute terms, the airport recorded an additional 580,000 movements during the shoulder periods, surpassing the growth of 520,000 passenger movements during the summer period.
This is a key element in the overall strategy of all stakeholders across the travel industry, as the ultimate aim is to address the seasonality factor by improving accessibility across key strategic markets. In fact, MIA confirmed that the growth being envisaged in 2026 is also as a result of the introduction of new routes across Eastern and Northern Europe, Scandinavia, as well as the launch of the direct flights to New York.
In fact, the company announced last week that it expects to register total passenger movements of 10.5 million in 2026, representing 4.4% growth compared to 2025’s figure of 10.06 million.
“This is undoubtedly very positive news for the company’s shareholders. Unfortunately, this is mostly overlooked by many investors, who remain disgruntled at the fact that the company’s share price has rarely surpassed €6”
While MIA is due to publish its annual financial statements for 2025 by the end of February, since the level of passenger movements is a key determinant to revenue and profitability levels, it is natural to expect the company to confirm another record financial performance for 2025.
MIA’s last financial forecast for 2025 was in August 2025, when it upgraded its earlier guidance for the year to 9.7 million passengers, with revenue anticipated at €151 million, EBITDA of €93 million, and net profit of €49 million.
The 2025 annual financial statements due to be published in the coming weeks should reveal improvements all across these figures given the achievement of just over 10 million passengers.
Meanwhile, based on the 2026 traffic guidance of 10.5 million passengers, the company also provided its financial guidance for the current year. MIA expects revenue of €162 million in 2026 – 7.3% higher than the August 2025 forecast of €151 million. Likewise, EBITDA is expected to rise to €98 million – 5.3% higher than the August 2025 forecast of €93 million, while it anticipates €51 million net profit in 2026 – 4.1% higher than the August 2025 forecast of €49 million.
MIA also announced that capital expenditure in 2026 is expected to amount to €90 million as it continues making headway in its €345 million investment plan for the 2025-29 period, as announced in February 2025.
Following the first expansion phase – the 1,550sqm westward expansion of the terminal, which was completed in the first half of 2025 ‒ the focus in 2026 will be mainly the construction of Sky Parks 2 and the second expansion phase, involving the eastward expansion of the terminal, which started at the end of 2025.
The airport’s growth trajectory over recent years has been nothing short of extraordinary. A comparison of key performance indicators to the pre-COVID levels provides a clear indication of the extent of the growth. If the airport succeeds in achieving its planned growth of 10.5 million passengers this year, this would be 44% higher than the 7.3 million passenger movements in 2019.
Meanwhile, the impact on the company’s financial performance is even stronger. The expected revenue of €162 million would be 62% above the 2019 figure of €100 million, with EBITDA growing by 55% and net profit up by 50% from the 2019 levels.
This is undoubtedly very positive news for the company’s shareholders. Unfortunately, this is mostly overlooked by many investors, who remain disgruntled at the fact that the company’s share price has rarely surpassed the €6 level over the past two years.
Hopefully, the timing of the improvement in the company’s cash flow should soon become clearer to the market once the company provides more details on the expected completion of the various phases of the ongoing major investment programme. This should eventually translate into much more meaningful dividend payments to shareholders.
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