SEPANG: Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) is optimistic of closing the year with a near full recovery of its passenger numbers at all of its 39 airports nationwide as air travel demand continues to soar.
MAHB managing director, Datuk Iskandar Mizal Mahmood said the airport operator was expecting that its full-year passenger numbers in 2023 would at least reach up to 75 per cent of 2019 levels.
"Based on our trajectory, we're always close to about 80 per cent of the 2019 level. Hopefully by end-2023, we should be very close to the 2019 numbers."
"In 2019, we have about 105 million passengers in total. We're hoping that we're going to be able to reach somewhere within that particular range. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, we're on a good trajectory for a full recovery. It may not be this year but maybe next year," he said.
Iskandar was speaking to reporters after the launch of MAHB's new feedback management platform, STARdesk and self-service bag drop facility, EZBagz, here today.
MAHB has seen its passenger traffic at all of its 39 airports in Malaysia improved by 124.6 per cent to 18.72 million passengers in the first quarter of 2023 from 8.34 million in the same period last year.
Only in March 2023, MAHB's passenger traffic had more than doubled to 6.66 million at all of its airports nationwide from 3.04 million in the same period last year.
International passenger movements for March rose 604.7 per cent year-on-year to 2.96 million, the highest monthly volume recorded since March 2020 while domestic passenger movements also increase by 41.3 per cent to reach 3.7 million.
Iskandar said given the continuous high volume of domestic and international passengers, MAHB had decided to introduce the STARdesk and EZBagz to ease the travel experience.
"We see a lot of digitalisation efforts in many airports around the world. I admit at one point saying that we're slow (in adopting digitalisation). We want to do a big catch up to prove to the world, to the nations that we're as good as any airports around the world."
"So, this is the effort that we're taking. There will be more coming on the way. We want to get back to the top tier of global ranking to be one of the best airports in the world," he added.
The STARdesk service allows passengers at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 to send their feedback to MAHB via the STARdesk mobile app.
The app, which can be downloaded from Google Playstore or Apple App Store, also features flight schedules, wayfinding and F&B offerings at the airport.
The EZBagz service is currently only available at KLIA Terminal 1. Six kiosks are installed at the Malaysia Airlines domestic check-in counter from Row B3 to B8.
Passengers can print their bag tag at either one of the six kiosks before placing their luggage on the conveyor belt.
Iskandar said the whole process takes about 45 seconds that effectively reduces the waiting time at check-in queues.
'We're working with airlines to introduce more EZBagz facilities in the future. We'll also be phasing this with the much needed replacement of our baggage handling system that is currently being undertaken," he added.