SEPANG (July 20): Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) saw its total domestic passenger movements increase by over six times year-on-year (y-o-y) to 20.25 million passengers in the first half of this year (1H2022).

In a statement on Wednesday (July 20), MAHB highlighted that the resumption of foreign carriers and international routes had contributed to the encouraging performance of its network of airports nationwide.

For June 2022, Malaysia’s total passenger traffic movements came in at 4.54 million passengers, making up 63% of the group’s total passenger movements of 7.21 million, which included Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen International Airport (SGIA).

Malaysia recorded 1.29 million international traffic passengers, while domestic traffic was 3.24 million passengers.

According to MAHB managing director Datuk Iskandar Mizal Mahmood, international traffic in Malaysia is improving, and this can be seen from Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA)’s performance in June.

He said KLIA’s total international traffic in June surpassed the one million passenger mark for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic, with 1.09 million international passengers, up 21% from May.

“Other international airports in our local network have also recorded increased passenger volumes between 35% to 66% in June, when compared to the preceding month. We are confident this will improve further with the resumption of more airlines operating at our airports,” said Iskandar.

The group’s Turkish operations, meanwhile, remained consistent with a total of 2.68 million passenger movements in June, up 3% from May.

Main Market-listed MAHB is one of the world’s largest airport operator groups in terms of number of passengers handled. It manages and operates 39 airports in Malaysia and one international airport in Istanbul, Turkey.