Air passenger traffic breached 1 million mark in July and August

Transport Minister Wee Ka Siong (second from right) at the launch of shopMYairports at KLIA in Sepang today.

SEPANG: Airports in the country have seen a gradual recovery in passenger traffic, recording an average of 1.3 million passenger traffic movements in July and August.

In June, only 430,000 passengers went through the airports.

Transport Minister Wee Ka Siong said this was a 60% to 70% increase compared with the air passenger traffic recorded during the movement control order (MCO).

However, he said the numbers were still far from pre-Covid-19 levels, with KLIA still suffering losses due to the closure of international borders.

“Despite airports in Malaysia remaining open throughout the MCO to facilitate the transport of essential goods and repatriation of Malaysian citizens, we saw almost zero passenger traffic movements in March, April and May,” he said.

“Needless to say, this has affected our aviation industry players. However, I am happy that there are signs of gradual recovery in passenger traffic movement at airports operated by Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB).”

While international borders remain closed until Dec 31, he said the launch of the Network Reconnecting Programme by MAHB would facilitate the resumption of flights to Malaysia once borders reopened.

He said the programme would involve providing benefits to international airline partners, such as year-long discounts on aeronautical charges based on the volume of passengers they brought in.

This would encourage airlines to fly to Malaysia and help revive the tourism sector, he said.

Wee was speaking at the launch of MAHB’s travel-retail e-commerce platform, shopMYairports.

ShopMYairports was created to expedite airport business recovery and provide opportunities for retailers to expand their market beyond physical stores at airports.

It is part of MAHB’s Airports 4.0 initiative aimed at leveraging technology to drive operational efficiency.

MAHB CEO Mohd Shukrie Mohd Salleh said Malaysia’s e-commerce contribution to the digital economy was expected to see a 20% growth this year, adding that airport retail sales amounted to RM2.8 billion before the pandemic.

He said MAHB hoped the new e-commerce platform would generate at least 10% more sales or RM280 million. - FMT