PETALING JAYA: Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd’s (MAHB) network of airports (including Istanbul SGIA) saw a 6.5% increase in total passenger traffic to 11.9 million in January, from 11.2 million passenger movements at the same time last year.
In a Bursa filing, MAHB said international and domestic sectors recorded 5.9 million and six million passenger movements with a year-on-year increase of 8.2% and 4.9% respectively over the same period last year.
“On a last twelve-month basis, the total MAHB network (inclusive of Istanbul SGIA) registered 6.3% growth with 141.9 million passenger movements, the highest passenger movements to date.
“January 2020 overall passenger movements growth of 6.5% was mainly driven by the Lunar New Year festive season in Malaysia and buoyant international growth of Istanbul SGIA,” it said.
The airport operator also said overall passenger movements in Malaysia registered 8.9 million passengers, a growth of 6.6% over January 2019.
International and domestic sectors recorded 4.7 million and 4.3 million passenger movements with 4.7% and 8.9% growth respectively over the same corresponding period last year.
Looking ahead, MAHB said it is closely monitoring the latest developments on the coronavirus outbreak, which will have a short-term impact on air travel, with a sharp decrease already seen for the last day of January.
“However, impact from 2019-nCov may not be the same as SARS. SARS resulted in 7.2% decline in international passenger traffic, but the domestic traffic increased by 6.5% resulting in overall plus 1% growth.
“SARS resulted in six months year-on-year decreases in passenger movements. The current traffic dynamics in volume and structure are different from what was in 2003,” it added.
MAHB expects passenger traffic to pick up once the confidence for travel develops as soon as the outbreak is contained.
