KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 25 — Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) registered more than 11 million passenger movements for July, in an ongoing upward trend of steady traffic growth with both Malaysia and Turkiye operations recording new highs of 7.4 million and 3.7 million passenger movements, respectively.
International and domestic passenger movements stood at the highest volume for the year to date, with 5.4 million international passengers and 5.7 million domestic passengers.
“These represent 89 per cent and 87 per cent respectively of passenger numbers over the same period in 2019, signalling consistent progress towards a full recovery of pre-pandemic volumes,” MAHB said in a statement today.
MAHB said international passenger movements in Malaysia for July increased by almost 10 per cent to 3.5 million passengers from 3.2 million passengers in the preceding month, while domestic passenger movements totalled 3.9 million, up 2 per cent from 3.8 million passengers in June 2023.
The growth from the international and domestic sectors were contributed by the local school holiday towards the end of July, summer holidays in the northern hemisphere, the gradual return of China travellers, the return of haj pilgrims, the operation of new airlines, and more flights.
Last month, Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) welcomed Salam Air from Muscat with two flights weekly, AirAsia X introduced flights to Chengdu three times weekly, and MYAirline started flying to Bangkok Don Mueang with seven flights weekly from KLIA.
Batik Air also commenced two new routes, twice weekly to Adelaide and four flights weekly to Chengdu. In Sabah and Sarawak, the Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA) welcomed two new airlines, Loong Air from Xi’An Xianyang with two flights weekly and Shanghai Airlines from Shanghai PuDong with seven flights weekly.
AirAsia resumed Beijing Daxing services with seven flights weekly and Macau with two flights weekly. Batik Air resumed its China network with direct flights from KKIA and Langkawi to Chengdu once a week.
Turkiye operations
Istanbul’s Sabiha Gokcen International Airport (SGIA) continued to show strong traffic momentum, surpassing pre-pandemic passenger volumes for three consecutive months.
SGIA recorded 3.7 million total passenger movements in July, a growth of 8.6 per cent from the corresponding month in 2019, and a 13 per cent increase from 3.3 million passengers in the preceding month.
In tandem with the summer holidays, international passenger movements in July showed the highest volume to date, registering 1.9 million passengers, up 11 per cent from 1.7 million passengers in June 2023, MAHB said.
Domestic passenger movements recorded 1.8 million passengers, reaching 90 per cent of July 2019 levels, the highest recovery rate for the year, and a 16 per cent growth from 1.6 million passengers in June.
— Bernama
