Malaysia Airports' International Traffic Increases By 53% After Border Reopening
International traffic at Malaysia Airports’ local network of airports increased by 53% after border reopening on 1 April 2022. Since then, the Group had been recording an average of 23,000 international passenger movements daily, with numbers peaking above 30,0000 during the recent long Hari Raya festive break.
On the whole, the airports recorded a total of 642,128 international passenger movements out of which Kota Kinabalu International Airport (BKI), Penang International Airport (PEN), and Langkawi International Airport (LGK) showed the most significant increase by more than 200% respectively when compared to the preceding month. Meanwhile, the Group recorded a total of 2.78 million passengers for Malaysia in April, with domestic passenger movements totalling 2.13 million or 77%.
Managing Director of Malaysia Airports Dato’ Iskandar Mizal Mahmood said, “As airports continue to see good growth after border reopening, airlines are also picking up momentum by actively resuming their international flight routes. This adds on to our optimism for faster recovery. We are also pleased that our Tioman STOLport (TOD) has resumed operations this month to serve SKS Airways’ (KI) Subang Airport (SZB) – TOD flight route. KI is currently the only carrier with a scheduled service flying this route 4 times weekly. We will continue to work closely with our partner airlines to speed up the pace of recovery for both domestic and international sectors.”
5 airlines resumed 17 international routes last month including Vietjet Air (VJ),
Scoot (TR), AirAsia (AK), Thai AirAsia (FD) and AirAsia X (D7). VJ operates the Ho
Chi Minh City (SGN) – Kuala Lumpur (KUL) route with a four-time weekly service
and is the fourth carrier to operate this route. TR resumed its daily flight service for
the BKI – Singapore (SIN) route. Meanwhile, the AirAsia group of carriers i.e., AK,
FD and D7 resumed the following routes: BKI – SIN, KUL – Hanoi (HAN), LGK – SIN,
Ipoh (IPH) – SIN, Hatyai (HDY) – KUL, Don Mueng (DMK) – PEN, KUL – Incheon (ICN),
KUL – New Delhi (DEL), KUL – SGN, KUL – Bengaluru (BLR), KUL – Kolkata (CCU), KUL
– Kochi (COK), KUL – Chennai (MMA), KUL – Tiruchirappalli (TRZ) and KUL – Siem
Reap (REP).
For April, the Group recorded a total of 4.90 million passenger movements for both
Malaysian and Turkish operations which was a slight decrease of 7.9% compared
to March. The decrease in passenger movements was due to April being the holy
month of Ramadan that witnessed lesser demand for travel both locally and
globally. Out of total passenger traffic movements of 4.89 million, local airports in
Malaysia contributed 57%. Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen International Airport (SAW) in
Turkey registered a total of 2.13 million passengers comprising 1.05 million
international and 1.08 million domestic passengers respectively.