by FARA AISYAH/ pic by BLOOMBERG

MALAYSIA Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) has achieved a record-high passenger volume handled for a month in August 2019.

The airport operator recorded 12.7 million passenger movements in August 2019, a 7.5% year-on-year (YoY) growth from 11.8 million in the same month last year.

MAHB in its exchange filing yesterday noted that the figure was the highest increase recorded to date for this year.

International passenger movements rose 7% YoY to six million passengers in the month, while domestic passenger movements grew by 7.9% YoY to 6.6 million passengers.

It added that airports in Malaysia recorded 9.2% YoY jump in passenger movements to 9.2 million passengers in August.

All airports, except for short takeoff and landing (STOL) airports (interior of Sabah and Sarawak), registered growth — with 15 airports recorded double-digit growth for the month.

Domestic passenger movements hit a high of 4.7 million people surpassing December 2018 peak traffic.

“The domestic passenger movements’ growth was mainly contributed by Malindo Airways Sdn Bhd and AirAsia Group Bhd,” MAHB said.

Regional pairs that registered growth for August 2019 were South Asia, South-East Asia, South-West Pacific, North America, North-East Asia and Africa regions.

Thirteen airlines registered double-digit growth for international passenger traffic — including Air Mauritius Ltd, Citilink Garuda Indonesia, Eastar Jet, PT Indonesia Air- Asia, Jeju Air Co Ltd, Jin Air Co Ltd, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Malindo Air, Nepal Airlines Corp, Philippines Airlines, Royal Jordanian Airlines, Singapore Airlines Ltd and SriLankan Airlines.

MAHB stated that Kuala Lumpur International Airport’s (KLIA) Total Airport Management System technical glitch for a few days in August 2019 did cause flight delays, as well as inconveniences to airlines, passengers and public, but there was hardly any material negative impact on demand for air travel.

MAHB’s Sabiha Gokcen International Airport in Istanbul saw a 3.1% rise in passenger movements to 3.4 million passengers in August, the company stated.

The international and domestic aircraft movements registered an increase of 4.9% and 4.3% respectively, over August 2018.

MAHB’s airports in Malaysia recorded 4.6 million international passenger movement and 4.7 million domestic passenger movements for the period, a 4% YoY and 14.8% YoY growth respectively.

International passenger movements for Asean and non-Asean destinations grew 3.1% and 4.9% to 2.2 million and 2.4 million passengers respectively.

Overall, aircraft movements increased by 5.2% — with international aircraft movements grew by 1.5%, while domestic aircraft movements grew by 7.7% over August 2018, the company noted.

Passenger movement via KLIA recorded a 6.7% increase over August 2018 with 5.4 million passenger movements.

Asean and non-Asean sectors grew by 4.5% and 4.3% respectively, over August 2018.

Domestic passenger movements registered a record-high growth of 12.7%.

August’s passenger movements for KLIA’s main terminal and KLIA2 increased by 4.7% and 8.5% respectively.

Overall aircraft movements at KLIA increased by 3.9% over August 2018. International aircraft movements at KLIA grew by 2%, while domestic aircraft movements increased by 8.1%.

Meanwhile, passenger movements at airports operated by Malaysia Airports (Sepang) Sdn Bhd increased by 12.9% YoY over August 2018 to 3.8 million.

International passenger movements increased by 2.1% or 0.7 million passengers, while domestic passenger movements increased by 15.9% with 3.1 million passengers.

Asean passenger movements declined by 2.8%, while non-Asean passenger movements grew by 8.5%.

The aircraft movements in August 2019 increased by 6.3% over August 2018.