By NUR HAZIQAH A MALEK / Pic By TMR File

Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) has won two awards from the Routes Asia 2018 Marketing Awards for the “Overall” and “Over 20 Million Passengers” categories, beating other hubs in the region.

MAHB MD Datuk Mohd Badlisham Ghazali said the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) has bagged the “Over 20 Million Passengers” award against five other shortlisted airports.

“MAHB undertook several missions to Europe, Asean, South Asia, India and China to meet up with over 30 airlines at their headquarters to market KLIA as a fast-growing hub.

“I would say that we have been well rewarded for our efforts, which saw us launching 25 new routes and securing nine new passenger airlines for KLIA in 2017,” he said in a statement yesterday.

According to MAHB, these awards were presented at the awards’ gala dinner in conjunction with the Route Development Forum Asia 2018 in Brisbane, Australia.

The yearly Routes Asia Marketing Awards are regarded as the most valuable awards in route development and the aviation industry as nominees are voted and judged by the airline network planning community.

The company said these recognitions have displayed the growth achieved by the airport through its collaborative approach and marketing efforts.

“This will further encourage us to continue working harder this year and come up with more innovative programmes that foster closer ties with our partners and stakeholders.

“As the overall winner, KLIA will be automatically shortlisted for the World Routes Marketing Awards in Guangzhou, September this year,” MAHB said.

The group recorded RM236.49 million net profit for its financial year ended Dec 31, 2017 (FY17), on the back of hike in costs of inventories sold, user fees, repair and maintenance cost and employee benefit expenses, as well as provision for doubtful debts.

Last year, the company’s passenger traffic grew over 11.2% to 58.6 million and recorded additional 30,535 commercial aircraft movements out of 386,054 total movements.

The company proposed a final single-tier dividend of eight sen per ordinary MAHB share in respect of its FY17 on Feb 21, 2018.

MAHB collaborated with Tourism Malaysia last year to develop a “Joint International Tourism Development Programme” to match the investments made by their airlines, trade and business partners in marketing campaigns that increase inbound tourism.