KUALA LUMPUR (May 23): International traffic at Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd’s (MAHB) local network of airports has increased by 53% after the border reopening on April 1, 2022, according to the group.

In a statement on Monday (May 23), the airport operator said that since then, it had been recording an average of 23,000 international passenger movements daily, with numbers peaking above 30,000 during the recent long Hari Raya festive break.

It said that on the whole, the airports recorded a total of 642,128 international passenger movements out of which the Kota Kinabalu International Airport, Penang International Airport and Langkawi International Airport showed the most significant increase by more than 200% respectively when compared to the preceding month.

Meanwhile, the group said it recorded a total of 2.78 million passengers for Malaysia in April, with domestic passenger movements totalling 2.13 million or 77%.

MAHB managing director Datuk Iskandar Mizal Mahmood said as airports continued to see good growth after the border reopening, airlines are also picking up momentum by actively resuming their international flight routes.

“This adds on to our optimism for a faster recovery. We are also pleased that our Tioman STOLport (TOD) has resumed operations this month to serve SKS Airways’ (KI) Subang Airport-TOD flight route.

“KI is currently the only carrier with a scheduled service flying this route four times weekly. We will continue to work closely with our partner airlines to speed up the pace of recovery for both the domestic and international sectors,” he said.

MAHB said five airlines resumed 17 international routes last month, including VietJet Air, Scoot, AirAsia, Thai AirAsia and AirAsia X.

It said that for April, the group recorded a total of 4.9 million passenger movements for both Malaysian and Turkish operations, which was a slight decrease of 7.9% compared to March.

It said the decrease in passenger movements was due to April being the holy month of Ramadan that witnessed lesser demand for travel both locally and globally.

MAHB said out of total passenger traffic movements of 4.89 million, local airports in Malaysia contributed 57%. The Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen International Airport in Turkey registered a total of 2.13 million passengers comprising 1.05 million international and 1.08 million domestic passengers respectively.