MAHB airports post 6% growth in Nov passenger movements

Malaysia’s moderate growth in passenger movements in November was partly contributed by the single-digit domestic growth, says the airport operator (Pic By Bernama)

By ASILA JALIL / Pic By BERNAMA

MALAYSIA AIRPORTS Holdings Bhd’s (MAHB) network of airports registered a 6% growth in November with 11.5 million passenger movements compared to 10.84 million in the same month last year.

The airports, including Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen International Airport (SGIA), saw passenger movements jump 5.4% to 139.92 million for the last 12 months versus 132.74 million in the previous trailing 12 months.

Domestic passengers increased 5.5% year-on-year (YoY) to 5.99 million in November 2019 from 5.68 million previously, while international passengers grew 6.6% YoY to 5.5 million from 5.16 million last year.

Passenger movements for Malaysia increased by 4.7% to 8.64 million passengers against 8.25 million in November 2018, MAHB said in a statement yesterday.

The international and domestic sectors of airports in Malaysia recorded an increase of 3.3% and 6.2% to 4.38 million and 4.25 million passengers respectively in November 2019, versus 4.25 million and four million passengers in November 2018.

Meanwhile, Istanbul SGIA recorded a 10.2% growth with 2.86 million passenger movements in November 2019 versus 2.6 million in the same period last year.

Its international passenger movements posted an increase of 21.8% to 1.12 million passengers in November this year from 919,000 passengers in November 2018, while domestic passenger movements increased 3.8% to 1.74 million passengers from 1.68 million.

MAHB said the November performance could be viewed as a positive sign for the coming year in terms of airline seat capacity provision and potential demand for air travel.

“There was a noticeable positive adjustment in domestic growth for Istanbul SGIA after a streak of negative growth for a year.

“Malaysia’s moderate growth in passenger movements in November was partly contributed by the single-digit domestic growth,” the airport operator said.

The moderate expansion was also partly due to school holidays in the last week of November, which made it an uneventful month.

There were 11 new international city pair operations compared to November last year, and three city pairs with double-digit growth.

“Several country pairs, especially from the Middle East and South Asia, registered double digit growth in passenger movements. Eighteen airlines recorded double-digit growth and two new airlines commenced operation in November 2019 compared to November 2018.

“Istanbul SGIA continued to register double-digit growth for the international sector and the domestic sector is recording a growth after a year of decline,” it added.