KUALA LUMPUR: Traffic at Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd’s (MAHB) network of airports including Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen International Airport (SGIA) grew 6.5 per cent to 11.3 million passengers last month.
Of the total passengers, MAHB’s international traffic rose 12.4 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to 5.4 million passengers, while domestic traffic grew 1.6 per cent to 6.0 million passengers.
MAHB said its total airports network grew 7.6 per cent to 130.0 million passengers, the highest traffic handled in the last 12 months.
“Overall aircraft movements increased by 2.1 per cent with international movements registering a growth of 9.4 per cent while domestic contracted 2.1 per cent over March 2017.”
On the local front, its local airports registered 8.6 million passengers, a 4.0 per cent YoY growth over March 2017.
“International sector recorded 4.5 million passengers or an 11.8 per cent increase, while the domestic sector registered 4.1 million passengers, a decline of 3.5 per cent.”
International traffic for Asean countries grew 10.5 per cent to 2.2 million passengers whereas non-Asean traffic recorded a 13.1 per cent growth to 2.3 million passengers.
Meanwhile, the average load factor for total traffic declined 0.4 percentage points to 76.9 over March 2017, dragged by the reduction in the domestic sector by 1.7 percentage points.
“KLIA passenger movements recorded a 6.4 per cent increase registering 5.2 million passenger movements over March 2017.
“The international sector registered a 9.5 per cent increase with 3.8 million passengers. A total of 1.8 million passengers recorded for Asean sector for an 8.5 per cent growth while 2.0 million passengers recorded for non-Asean, an increase of 10.4 per cent.
“Domestic sector passengers declined by 1.0 per cent over March 2017 with 1.4 million passengers.”
MAHB said the traffic for KLIA Main Terminal declined 1.2 per cent while klia2 grew 14.0 per cent.
Passenger traffic for KLIA Main Terminal recorded 28.2 million passengers, while klia2 posted 31.2 million passengers in the last 12-month period.
Meanwhile, Istanbul SGIA passengers increased 15.2 per cent to 2.7 million with both international and domestic sectors each having recorded 15.2 per cent growth over March 2017.
“Over the last 12 months, total passengers grew 10.2 per cent to 32.5 million movements. International passenger traffic increased 13.6 per cent while domestic grew 8.9 per cent.”
MAHB’s handled 6.9 per cent more passengers to 32.2 million in the first quarter (Q1) of the year.
International traffic grew 11.8 per cent to 15.5 million passengers, while domestic passengers increased 2.7 per cent to 16.7million passengers.
Airports in Malaysia rose 3.6 per cent to 24.4 million passenger traffic with international traffic increasing 10.8 per cent and domestic traffic easing 3.5 per cent.
KLIA passenger movements grew 5.7 per cent to 15.0 million passengers in Q1 2018. International traffic registered 11.0 million passengers, representing an 8.8 per cent increase over Q1 2017.
“Moving forward some moderation in international growth is likely while a positive turnaround in the domestic sector for Malaysia operations is foreseen.
“Istanbul SGIA performance will likely maintain its growth momentum for both domestic and international passenger traffic in the immediate term,” MAHB said.