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3 NEWS 12.5.2022 KURT SANSONE MALTA International Airport directors came in for glowing praise by a repre- sentative of small shareholders for hold- ing a physical annual general meeting today. e comment from the floor, which was the only intervention, was an indi- rect reprimand to Bank of Valletta that is insisting on holding its AGM online despite COVID-19 restrictions being lifted. MIA held its 30th AGM on Wednes- day in hybrid format with shareholders being able to attend physically or follow proceedings online. A representative of the Malta Associa- tion of Small Shareholders thanked the MIA board and the CEO for the hybrid model AGM, which strayed away from "the trend adopted by other companies that are insisting on holding their meet- ings only online". BOV is facing growing pressure from shareholders to hold a physical meeting so that they could seek answers on the bank's decision to reach an out of court settlement in the Deiulemar case. e bank has so far refused these demands. For the second year running, MIA shareholders approved a resolution that recommended no dividend be paid out in the wake of the impact the COV- ID-19 pandemic had on the airport. €7m net profit despite pandemic impact MIA CEO Alan Borg gave an overview of the company's performance in 2021, which showed how the company man- aged a net profit of €7 million despite registering just a third of 2019 passen- ger movements. e company registered 2.54 million passenger movements, which rep- resented a recovery of 35% over the pre-pandemic 2019 traffic results. How- ever, Borg noted that passenger traffic was at 2002 levels. Borg said performance was condi- tioned by COVID restrictions across Europe and the lack of coordination by the different countries, which hit con- sumer confidence. MIA recorded €47.4 million in rev- enue and earnings per share stood at 0.052c. Cost cutting, including the non-re- placement of retiring workers and a percentage pay cut for all employees at the start of 2021, and non-aviation rev- enue helped buoy the company. e airport headcount stood at 329 by end 2021, down from 377 a year earlier. Staff wages cost €6.7 million. MIA's market capitalisation dropped by 3%, Borg said but it still remains the largest on the Malta Stock Exchange. e primary markets were Italy, the UK, Germany, France and Poland with Ryanair having a 44% market share, fol- lowed by Air Malta at 23.5%. Tough first quarter but good prospects in 2022 Looking at the start of 2022, Borg said the first quarter was "tough" because of the impact the Omicron variant had across Europe. In the first three months MIA recorded 672,965 passenger move- ments. However, April brought a bonanza. "e start month has been April with the lifting of restrictions and the Esater holidays the seat load factor reached 77.8% and passenger movements clocked in at 513,000," Borg said. "We hope to see this trend moving forward throughout the year." MIA only recently inaugurated the first part of a €2 million investment in a new food court with an extended foot- print and will pursue the investment in SkyParks 2 and Apron X. SkyParks 2 is a new mixed office block that also incorporates an airport ho- tel and will be built on the site of the current petrol station over an area of 4,600sq.m. Borg said the procurement process will start shortly. On the development of Apron X, Borg said the €40 million investment will create new aircraft parking space to ca- ter for seven Code-C aircraft or three Code-E airplanes. "e war in Ukraine brings uncertain- ty and will impact purchasing power in core markets as inflation eats away at incomes but I believe 2022 will be a good year for MIA," Borg concluded. Shareholders approved all resolutions put to them by the board. MIA shareholders get no dividends for second year but directors praised for physical AGM EARLY in January of this year, Express Trailers commenced a new regular weekly groupage service from Poland to Malta, the result of a new cooperation between Express Trailers and Polish logistics company Rohlig Suus. past three months, this new service has already been offering a fast, respon- sive and reliable commercial line to all those doing business between Malta and Poland but also beyond. In fact, this route has created a network that also connects Slovakia, Hungary and Ukraine to Malta. As it turned out, the creation of this new logistics route could not have been better timed for a small group of vol- unteers who a few weeks ago decided to put together a consignment of food and other essentials which needed to be transported to the Polish border where hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees are arriving daily. "Over a month has now passed since the outbreak of this war and hope that this will be just a short-term crisis is starting to fade. In such instances, we are always confronted with the question of what we could do from so far away. en there are those who stop ques- tioning and decide to act," said Franco Azzopardi, CEO of Express Trailers. "We are proud to have been in a posi- tion to assist in this delicate operation. We can only feel admiration for all those who never give up but who put them- selves at the service of those in need to deliver not only vital supplies but most importantly, hope," he added. e initiative was triggered by Char- lotte Zammit and a team of volunteers who explained how all the supplies do- nated by generous private individuals and companies, which included food- stuffs, medical supplies and blankets have now been delivered to the Jesuit Refugee Service in Poland who is over- seeing the operation to ensure their dis- tribution. "We were delighted that Express Trail- ers could assist our efforts thanks to their temperature-controlled trailers, the reliability of their service and their experience in long-haul deliveries. So many people have come together to make this delivery possible. Our hope now is that this generosity shown by so many people will be of comfort to the Ukrainian refugees," said Charlotte Zammit. Express Trailers leverages its new Poland service to deliver supplies to Ukraine

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