MAHB hits 7mil passenger mark for first time in two years

 

MAHB says its May performance was fuelled by the Aidilfitri celebrations, the Sabah and Sarawak harvest festivals, and the onset of summer holidays in Turkiye.

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (MAHB) recorded a total of 7.1 million passenger movements for its local airports and Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen International Airport (SAW) in May.

It was the first time that traffic had surpassed the seven million mark in two years.

The Malaysian and Turkish operations recorded 4.57 million and 2.60 million passenger movements respectively, MAHB said in a statement.

It said the performance was fuelled by the Aidilfitri celebrations, the Sabah and Sarawak harvest festivals, and the onset of summer holidays in Turkiye, all of which took place in May.

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MAHB said the traffic momentum gained in May continued into June, with an 11% increase in daily average passenger movements to 163,000.

In May, an additional foreign carrier – Cambodian low-cost carrier Lanmei Airlines – launched its inaugural weekly flight connecting Phnom Penh to Kuala Lumpur.

It was the second new foreign airline to launch flights into the country this year, making a total of 43 foreign airlines operating in the country.

Among the other airlines that had started operations in Malaysia recently are India’s IndiGo, Thai Smile Airways, Royal Brunei Airlines, Jin Air from Korea, and Philippines AirAsia.

MAHB managing director Iskandar Mizal Mahmood said that with the reopening of borders two months ago, the demand was there for airlines to “seize the opportunity” to speed up recovery.

“For an airport operator, every new entry of a foreign airline into the country signals positive growth for the aviation landscape,” he said in the statement. - FMT