The Sabiha Gokcen International Airport (SGIA) in Instanbul, one of the two international airports in Turkey
KUALA LUMPUR: Passenger movements at airports under Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd
(MAHB), including Istanbul’s Sabiha Gokcen International Airport (SGIA), grew 2.7% year-on-year to 9.5 million in March 2016.
In a filing with Bursa Malaysia, MAHB said international traffic jumped 2.9% to 4.2 million passengers while domestic traffic increased 2.6% to 5.3 million passengers.
“For airports in Malaysia, 7.2 million passengers were registered in March 2016, a decrease of 0.8% over March 2015 with the international sector up 2.1% while the domestic sector down 3.3%.
“Istanbul SGIA passengers continued with its double-digit growth at 15.7% for the month under review, with international and domestic sectors up 6.9% and 20.5%, respectively,” it said.
For the first quarter of this year, the total MAHB system handled 28 million passengers, up 6.9% from the same period last year.
On outlook, MAHB said the inherent demand for air travel continued to remain in the positive territory.
“The second quarter has the advantage of Malaysia Airlines improving performance and the recently announced expanding code share with Emirates.
“Similarly, Malindo Airs expected codesharing and interlining agreements with other foreign carriers would help, now that they have moved back to the KLIA Main terminal,” it said.
Furthermore, MAHB said despite the double-digit cut in Malaysia Airlines frequencies, 3.4% growth in passenger movements in Malaysia to 22 million for the first quarter was credible.
In addition, the reduced frequencies have been more than replaced by the higher load factors and other new airlines.
“MAHB is optimistic of its final numbers for Malaysian airports would at least meet the estimated 2.5% growth for 2016,” it added. - Bernama
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