KUALA LUMPUR: Domestic passenger movements across Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd's (MAHB) local airports increased three-fold to 1.18 million passengers in October from 362,000 passengers in September.
This was fuelled by the lifting of domestic travel restrictions, charting over one million total passenger traffic movements in Malaysia for the first time this year.
The airport operator's combined operations in Malaysia and Turkey posted a total of 4.1 million passenger movements on October, 28 per cent more than September.
Managing director Datuk Iskandar Mizal Mahmood said the recently announced vaccinated travel lane (VTL) between Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) and Singapore's Changi Airport, the Langkawi international travel bubble and the upcoming travel corridor between Malaysia and Indonesia would improve passenger traffic in the coming months.
"The government-to-government (G2G) initiatives to facilitate safe international travel would undoubtedly contribute to the recovery of the aviation industry that has been severely affected by the imposition of travel restrictions due to Covid-19.
"We are optimistic about an inherent demand for travel, be it for business or leisure," he said in a statement recently.
He said MAHB ensured safety measures would be strictly implemented and adhered to, allowing passengers to travel with peace of mind and not experience any deterioration in service level.
He said the pre-Covid-19, the KLIA-Changi route was the world's busiest international flight route for two years in a row, in 2018 and 2019, recording more than 30,000 flights a year.
"It is likely the same demand will continue to exist for this route," he added.
Meanwhile, MAHB's asset in Turkey, the Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen International Airport (ISG), continued to consistently record encouraging passenger traffic movements, signalling Turkey's strong recovery in the aviation sector.
ISG registered 2.7 million passengers in October, recording a 13 per cent increase from the previous month for international passenger traffic movements.
Turkey's high vaccination rate of 72.4 per cent of its adult population and the roll-out of its Covid-19 vaccine, Turkovac has boosted the confidence of international tourists to visit Turkey.
MAHB said ISG is still the main contributor to the MAHB's total passenger movements at 66 per cent.
Year to date, MAHB had also registered 869,445 tonnes for its total cargo operations up to October this year, representing a significant increase of 26 per cent from the same period last year.
Homegrown cargo player, My Jet Xpress Airlines Sdn Bhd had recently announced it would increase its fleet by an additional two aircraft in December.
The cargo airline also sought to expand its flight routes to China with four new routes and plans to transport cargo from China to India via Kuala Lumpur.
