KUALA LUMPUR (April 19): Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB), which registered a 125% year-on-year increase in passenger traffic in the first quarter of the year (1Q2023), expects more airlines to fly into its airports, including Indonesia-based TransNusa Airlines in the coming months.

MAHB managing director Datuk Iskandar Mizal Mahmood said the airport operator remains optimistic about travel demand, on the back of active resumption of airline operations and routes at its airports nationwide. 

“We expect more new airlines to fly to Malaysia in the coming months. One of them, Indonesian low-cost carrier TransNusa Airlines, made its debut international flight to Kuala Lumpur (KUL) from Jakarta (CGK) this month,” he said in a statement on Wednesday (April 19).

He noted that TransNusa Airlines initially served only domestic routes in Indonesia, and Malaysia was its first international destination. 

“We are excited to be chosen as its first international destination. TransNusa is the ninth airline with operations between KUL and CGK, proving the route's popularity and high demand,” he said. 

MAHB’s passenger movements continued to grow steadily in March, registering three million international and 3.7 million domestic passengers.

Both MAHB’s international and domestic segments showed an increase in passenger movements by more than 10% each, compared to February 2023. March alone saw 9.4 million in total passenger movements. 

“This healthy and consistent air travel growth was further attested by year-to-date total passenger movements in Malaysia of 18.7 million (as of March 2023), an increase of 125% from 8.3 million passengers during the same period in 2022,” he said. 

Among the resumed flights to MAHB’s airports were China Southern Airlines’ flight to the Penang International Airport (PEN) from Guangzhou (CAN), and AirAsia’ flight between the Kota Kinabalu International Airport (BKI) and CAN.  

Ethiopian Airlines (ET) also reinstated its KUL to Addis Ababa (ADD) route, followed by Air Arabia's (G9) Sharjah (SHJ) to KUL, Firefly's PEN to Singapore (SIN), Shenzhen Airlines from Shenzhen (SZX) to KUL, and AirAsia X from KUL to Beijing (PEK).

As for new local routes, MYAirline began its service to the Miri Airport (MYY), Sibu Airport (SBW) and Tawau Airport (TWU) from KUL. 

“These additional airlines and routes contributed to total passenger movements of 6.7 million in March 2023, a 15% increase from the preceding month,” he noted. 

At the group level, MAHB recorded total passenger movements of 9.4 million in March 2023. 

“The Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen International Airport (SAW) in Türkiye recorded total passenger movements of 2.8 million in March, a 10% growth from the preceding month,” he said. 

SAW registered 1.5 million international and 1.3 million domestic passenger movements.

“The international sector made a more significant contribution to SAW, with an increase of 10% in the airport’s total passenger movements in March when compared to February 2023,” he added. 

At the time of writing on Wednesday, MAHB traded down six sen or 0.84% at RM7.11 a share, giving it a market capitalisation of RM11.8 billion. 

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