PUTRAJAYA: Transport Minister Anthony Loke says it would be an "extraordinary achievement" if the country's airline passengers could reach 100 million passengers before the year-end, reaching the pre-Covid-19 numbers.
He said Malaysia was on track to reach the pre-Covid-19 figures despite airline transportation experts predicting that the aviation industry's recovery would take three to five years.
"The Malaysian Aviation Commission (Mavcom) has projected that passenger traffic will reach between 93.9 million and 107.1 million people by the end of this year.
"If we look at our achievements, it only took us two years to reach pre-Covid-19 levels. This is an extraordinary achievement," Loke said when officiating the ministry's Independence Month launching ceremony.
On Thursday, Mavcom announced that Malaysia's total air passenger traffic reached 46.6 million in the first half of 2024, marking a 15.3 per cent increase year-on-year from the 40.4 million recorded during the same period in 2023.
Mavcom said that the international air passenger traffic was particularly strong, at 24.0 million, up by 35.9 per cent from 17.6 million in 1H 2023.
It also announced that air cargo traffic in the second quarter of 2024 (2Q 2024) had increased by 5.5 per cent year-on-year to 241,895 tonnes from 229,195 tonnes in 2Q 2023, driven by a surge in international cargo movements.