Kenanga Research expects recovery of business and leisure air travel to continue throughout FY24.
PETALING JAYA: The business and leisure air travel sector is expected to continue recovering, lifting Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd
’s (MAHB) passenger traffic numbers in the financial year ending Dec 31, 2024 (FY24).
According to Kenanga Research, MAHB’s system-wide passenger throughput, including Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen International Airport, came in within its expectations.
“We expect the recovery of business and leisure air travel to continue throughout FY24.
“For MAHB, the poser is if the proposed privatisation by a consortium at RM11 per share will be accepted by its minority shareholders,” the research house said, adding that it is keeping its forecasts, with a target price of RM11 and advising shareholders to accept the offer.
Total network of airports’ passenger traffic continued to gain traction in the first half of the year, rising 16% year-on-year to 65 million, which made up 49% of its full-year forecast of 131 million versus 119 million in 2023.
“As an indication that traffic recovery has continued to show buoyancy, passenger movements reached 95% of 2019 levels, underscoring the underlying demand for air travel,” Kenanga Research said.
It pointed out that international passenger throughput of 34 million grew 29%, partly driven by visa exemptions for Chinese and Indian travellers, the expansion of the airlines network, particularly for the international sector and introduction of new routes, and increasing travelling during the festive seasons.
Meanwhile, MIDF Research said the overall impact of the recent global information technology (IT) outage had minimal impact on passenger traffic in July.
“MAHB’s network of airports in Malaysia has remained unaffected by the global IT outage, but some of their airline partners had faced disruptions.
“AirAsia’s check-in and booking systems experienced downtime, but operations returned to normal by July 22,” the research house said.
