Passenger traffic at Malaysian airports rebounds

Passengers being checked their boarding pass before going onbroad at KLIA in Sepang

KUALA LUMPUR: Passenger traffic at Malaysian airports under Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) rebounded last month following three months of year-on-year (y-o-y) contraction to record a 3.2% growth to 6.85 million passengers.

In its monthly passenger traffic snapshot filing with Bursa Malaysia, MAHB said KL International Airport, whose traffic fell 0.5% y-o-y in December, recorded a 4.4% growth in passenger movements last month to 3,997.

Of the Malaysian airports’ 6.85 million passengers last month, the international sector accounted for 3.54 million (6% growth) and the domestic sector 3.31 million (0.3% growth).

MAHB’s Malaysian airports posted a marginal growth of 0.5% in passenger traffic last year.

Passenger movements at MAHB’s 100%-owned Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen International Airport jumped 19.4% to 2.25 million in January, bringing total traffic at MAHB system of airports to 9.1 million -- a 6.8% y-o-y growth.

MAHB noted that there was a net growth overall despite a double-digit decline in Malaysia Airlines traffic.

“The growth at Malaysian airports was contributed by pre-Chinese New Year traffic and the additional traffic carried by new airlines that started operations in 2015. Both local and foreign carriers are reacting very strongly to pick up the withdrawn capacity by Malaysia Airlines,” it said.

“There was significant growth in AirAsia’s and Malindo’s traffic by above 10% and 35% respectively. Foreign airlines’ contribution as a whole also increased significantly through a year-on-year growth of more than 10%.”