International traffic surges 53%, says MAHB

KUALA LUMPUR: International traffic at Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd’s (MAHB) local network of airports has increased by 53% following the border reopening on April 1, 2022.

The group, which manages and operates 39 airports in the country, said it had recorded an average of 23,000 international passenger movements daily, with traffic peaking at above 30,000 during the recent long Aidilfitri festive break.

“On the whole, the airports recorded a total of 642,128 international passenger movements, of which Kota Kinabalu International Airport, Penang International Airport and Langkawi International Airport showed the most significant increase – by more than 200% respectively compared to the preceding month,” MAHB said in a statement yesterday.

It added that a total of 2.78 million passengers were recorded for Malaysia in April,

with domestic passenger movements totalling 2.13 million or 77%.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia yesterday, the group said towards the end of April, international and domestic daily average passenger movements grew by 31% and 87% monthon-month, respectively.

Malaysia’s daily average domestic passenger movements surpassed the 100,000-mark for the first time, with more than 131,000 average daily passengers in the last four days of April, it said.

The momentum continued in the first nine days of May, during which there were 128,600 daily passengers on average.

“(For comparison,) the average daily passengers registered between January 2022 to March 2022 was about 81,000 passengers,” it said. — Bernama