On February 9, 1992, 140 passengers arrived at Malta International Airport on board a direct flight from Moscow. They were the first passengers to be welcomed at Malta’s new air terminal building, which had been inaugurated the previous day. Since then, millions of passengers – 75 million since the airport’s privatisation in 2002 – have walked through the terminal’s doors. The terminal and its surroundings in 1999. Photo: MIA The inauguration of the terminal building in 1992 had heralded an exciting era for the local aviation industry and tourism, the airport said in a statement. The building, which was constructed over two years with an investment of around Lm12 million (€28 million), was designed to cater for future traffic growth, with the aim of eventually handling 2.5 million passengers annually. But its continuous evolution, particularly through an investment of more than €30 million in two extensions together with a more recent €12 million reconfiguration, allowed Malta International Airport to welcome almost three times as many passengers in 2019 alone. Malta International Airport had ended what was an exceptional year with a record 7.3 million passengers, 2.8 million of...