By DASHVEENJIT KAUR

Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd’s (MAHB) network of airports, including Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen International Airport (Istanbul SGIA), recorded a traffic of 125.7 million passengers last month.

In its latest monthly passenger traffic snapshot update to Bursa Malaysia, MAHB said the figure is so far the highest traffic handled over a 12-month period by the network and the first time passenger movements breached the 125 million mark.

The number of passengers passing through the 39 airports in the country MAHB manages registered 8.3 million passengers in August this year, a 9.3% year-on-year (YoY) growth.

MAHB said the 9.3% growth in August was mainly driven by the international traffic growth that was contributed among others, by the haj travel season, the SEA Games Kuala Lumpur 2017, visa relaxation for India and China, competitive fares, as well as the favourable exchange rate for foreign tourists.

On the local front, the international sector recorded 4.4 million passengers with a 17.3% increase, while domestic sector recorded 3.9 million passengers, representing a growth of 1.7%.

Passenger traffic growth was registered at 14 of 21 international and domestic airports in Malaysia.

International traffic for Asean destinations grew 15.2% to two million passengers, whereas non-Asean traffic posted a 19.1% growth to 2.4 million passengers.

Overall aircraft movements in Malaysia for airports managed by MAHB increased by 4.6%.

International aircraft movements grew by 14.9%, while domestic aircraft movements declined by 1.3% over August 2016.

Overall average load factor was 77% in August 2017, an improvement of 2.4 percentage points over August 2016.

Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) passenger movements recorded a 12.5% increase over August 2016, with 5.1 million passenger movements.

A total of 1.7 million passengers was recorded for the Asean destinations with a 17.8% growth, while two mil- lion passengers were recorded for the non-Asean destinations (15.3% growth).

A total of 1.4 million passengers were recorded for the domestic sector, representing a growth of 2.9%.

Meanwhile, August traffic for KLIA’s main terminal grew by 4.4%, while traffic for KLIA2 increased by 21.4%.

Overall aircraft movements at KLIA increased by 10.9% over the same month last year.

The last 12 months, passenger traffic for KLIA’s main terminal recorded 28.4 million passengers which is an increase of 22.6%, while KLIA2 improved by 5.7% with 28.9 million passengers over the corresponding period last year.

Meanwhile, MAHB’s network of airports (including Istanbul SGIA) recorded 11.4 million passengers in August 2017, a 7.8% growth over August 2016.

International traffic recorded 5.5 million passengers with a YoY increase of 15.8%, while domestic traffic improved by 1.3%, recording 5.9 million passengers com- pared to the same period a year ago.

Overall aircraft movements increased by 2.6% with international movements registering an increase of 11%, while domestic decreased by 2.1% over August 2016.

All regions, with the exception of Europe, registered positive growth in passenger traffic for August 2017 with South-East Asia, North-East Asia and South Asia posting double-digit growth.

Europe traffic, in the meantime, was affected by reduction in capacity to Istanbul.

Passenger traffic to and from 15 countries recorded more than 10% growth including China, India, Indonesia, Vietnam, South Korea, the Philippines and Cambodia.