ISTANBUL, Turkey: Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) is in talks with three airlines to fly to its Istanbul Sabiha Gokchen next year.
Istanbul Sabiha Gokchen (ISG) chief executive officer Ersel Goral said the airport operator had confirmed the participation of Emirates to fly Boeing 777 from Dubai beginning April next year.
“For 2018, we have ongoing negotiations with several particular airlines from Western Europe and some Middle Eastern countries as well as from the Russian and Ukrainian markets which we hope to attract for next year,” Goral told the Malaysian media here on Monday.
“We have also shaken hands with Emirates and they will start launching their flights in April 2018 or summer 2018 with daily flights out of Dubai with Boeing 777s.
“Emirates had flown to ISG airport until mid-2016 but for some particular reasons, they decided to stop the flights. But now they are planning to launch their flights in the summer of 2018. This is not the only airline we expecting to receive.
He said so far this year, the airport had started to serve four airlines namely Air Baghdad from Iraq, Utair from Ukraine, Air Mediterranean from Greece and an airline from Saudi Arabia.
Expecting a double-digit passenger traffic growth in two years with the upcoming completion of the third airport (Grand Airport), Goral said the airport operator plans to shift its focus to the international market with expansion plans underway to support it.
“By the end of 2017, we are expecting to serve a total of 31 milion passengers and we do expect the growth to be about eight per cent in 2018 and more than 10 to 20 per cent of traffic increase from 2019 to 2022. This is in line with the commencement of operation of Istanbul Grand Airport (the third airport).”
He said ISG terminal building has the capacity of 33 milion passagers per year. The expansion of boarding hall in domestic terminal will increase the capacity up to 41 milion passanger per year.
This will allow ISG to cope with traffic growth in the next few years.
“With the completion of our second runway and terminal, we will have a total capacity of 65 million passengers a year, servicing major parts of Turkey and meeting the demands of local and international passengers.
"We do believe that after two years, ISG and Istanbul Grand Airport will have double-digit growth with the help of the international market and supported with the fleet growth of local carrier,” he added.
MAHB recorded a seven-fold jump in net profit for the third quarter ended September 30, 2017, to RM79.69 million from RM10.68 million a year ago on strong revenue growth driven by both airport and non-airport operations.
The group's revenue for the current quarter under review grew 12.7 per cent to RM1.2 billion over the corresponding quarter in 2016 of RM1.08 billion.
For the nine months period, net profit rose more than five times to RM208.63 million from RM37.07 million a year ago, while the group's revenue for the financial period-to-date under review grew 10.1 per cent to RM3.41 billion against RM3.09 billion.