PETALING JAYA: Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd’s (MAHB) domestic passenger movements in September surged 74% from the preceding month, driven by the success of the Langkawi Travel Bubble and the progress of the National Recovery Plan (NRP).
The total passenger movements for Malaysia jumped 55% to 458,000 passengers last month from 362,000, it said in a statement yesterday.
“Domestic aircraft movements increased by about 20% last month as well compared to August, registering more than 10,000 flights.
“MAHB is optimistic that the encouraging travel trend will continue with the lifting of the interstate and international travel restrictions,” it said.
MAHB said the success of the Langkawi Travel Bubble during its initial implementation between Sept 16 and Sept 29 recorded about 37,000 passenger movements for the group.
“Local airlines also benefitted from it with AirAsia recording the most aircraft movements with 176 flights and commanding the majority of the average seat factor at 64% during the same period.
“The upward trend was further boosted by the lifting of the interstate travel restrictions this month that applies for all areas nationwide except those still under the enhanced movement control order or EMCO,” it said.
Meanwhile, MAHB’s Turkish asset, Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen International Airport (ISG) recorded 2.7 million passenger movements in September.
It remained the main contributor to the group’s total passenger movements of 3.2 million passengers last month.
“ISG continues to show strong recovery, driven by accelerated vaccination rollout rates and border relaxation in Europe.
“Ranked among the top countries with access to vaccines, Turkey projects a high inoculation rate of the nation to achieving public immunity by the end of 2021.
“Not only has 74.5% of its population been fully vaccinated, but the country will also be rolling out the mass production of its own Covid-19 vaccine, Turkovac, this month, further intensifying its efforts to return to normalcy,” it said.
As for the group’s cargo operations, MAHB said it welcomed China Central Longhao Airlines to KLIA last month, as the airport operator continued to validate air cargo’s increasing importance within the local aviation landscape, especially in light of the pandemic’s devastating impact on the industry.
“The Chinese cargo carrier operates the Shenzhen-Kuala Lumpur route with a tri-weekly service.
Total cargo operations for MAHB till September saw a 24% increase from the same period last year, which is approximately 726,800 tonnes.
“It remains an important vehicle for aviation and economic recovery,” it added. ―Bernama