PETALING JAYA: Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd’s (MAHB) network of airports registered approximately 237,000 passengers in May 2020, a decline of 97.8% over May 2019.
International and domestic passenger movements recorded 33,000 and 204,000 passengers respectively.
Overall aircraft movements contracted by 88.5% with international and domestic aircraft movements declining by 92.8% and 85.5% respectively over May 2019.
Meanwhile, May passenger movements for KLIA Main Terminal and klia2 recorded 62,000 and 26,000 passenger movements respectively, while overall aircraft movements at KLIA declined by 91.7% over May 2019.
For airports operated by Malaysia Airports Sdn Bhd, passenger movements declined 95.4% year-on-year with
149,000 passengers.
Istanbul SGIA was temporarily closed for operations in May 2020. However, there were several flights in May with marginal passenger volume due to repatriation of Turkish citizens.
Domestic flights have since resumed on June 1, with limited capacity during the initial restart of operations by local airlines, gradually increasing frequencies over the coming weeks.
On a last-twelve-month basis, the total MAHB network of airports registered 111.2 million passengers, a decline of 17.9% over the same period last year. Passenger movements for KLIA Main Terminal and klia2 recorded 22.9 million and 25.1 million, a decline of 18.9% and 21.8% respectively over the same corresponding period last year.
“Traffic performance in Malaysia and Turkey continued to be affected by the CMCO and temporary suspension of Istanbul ISGA’s operations in May 2020. Nevertheless, the restriction of movements at both countries have effectively contained the further spread of pandemic with a fall in COVID-19 new cases towards the end of May,” MAHB said in a statement.
Both the Turkish and Malaysian governments announced relaxation of restrictions that permitted intercity and interstate travel on May 28 and June 6 respectively. International border control restrictions are still in place for Malaysia.
Looking ahead, the Malaysian government recently announced an additional RM35 billion Short-Term Economic Recovery Plan, of which several of the tax incentives introduced are expected to support and boost the domestic tourism sector until December 2021.
