KUALA LUMPUR: The addition of a new foreign carrier and the recommencement of five other airlines last month has boosted international traffic recovery at Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd's (MAHB) local network of airports.
MAHB recorded a total of 1.03 million international passenger movements in Malaysia last month, hitting the 1-million mark for the first time since March 2020, when borders closed.
MAHB managing director Datuk Iskandar Mizal Mahmood said that with the reopening of borders two months ago, the airport operator has recorded an average monthly increase of more than 50 per cent in international traffic.
"The demand is there for airlines to seize the opportunity and speed up recovery. For an airport operator, every new entry of a foreign airline into the country signals positive growth for the aviation landscape.
"Lanmei Airlines is the second new foreign carrier that we welcomed into the country this year, adding up to a total of 43 foreign airline partners operating at our network of airports in Malaysia," he said in a statement today.
Lanmei Airlines, a low-cost carrier from Cambodia, launched its inaugural weekly flight connecting Phnom Penh and Kuala Lumpur, utilising the Airbus A320 aircraft, the third airline after Malaysia Airlines (MH) and AirAsia (AK) to serve this route.
"We look forward to attracting more new airline partners this year while welcoming returning airlines," he said.
On the local front, domestic passenger movements continued their recovery trajectory by recording more than three million passenger movements for the first time since February 2020 or 91 per cent of pre-Covid levels.
The traffic momentum gained in May continued into June with an 11 per cent increase in daily average passenger movements to 163,000.
MAHB also recorded 7.10 million passenger movements for its local airports and Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen International Airport (SAW) in May.
Traffic performance for MAHB continued to grow and had surpassed the seven million mark for the first time in two years.
Both Malaysian and Turkish operations had also recorded the highest passenger volume for the year at 4.57 million and 2.60 million, respectively.
This encouraging performance was fuelled by the Aidilfitri celebrations, the Sabah and Sarawak harvest festivals and the onset of summer holidays in Turkey that had all happened in May, MAHB stated.
The five airlines that have recommenced operations in Malaysia include IndiGo, India's leading low-cost carrier operating the Chennai and Tiruchirappalli flights to Kuala Lumpur, and Thai Smile Airways flying the Bangkok Bangkok to Penang route.
In East Malaysia, Royal Brunei Airlines resumed flights from Brunei to Kuching and Kota Kinabalu, while Jin Air from Korea reinstated its Incheon to Kota Kinabalu route. Philippines AirAsia (Z2) had also resumed its Manila Manila to Kota Kinabalu route.
Apart from the recommencement of flight services, MAHB also witnessed the introduction of new routes in May, such as the much-awaited Kuala Lumpur to Doha (DOH) flight by Malaysia Airlines and the domestic Subang to Tioman flight by SKS Airways.
Meanwhile, the AirAsia group of carriers resumed their flights from Kuala Lumpur to Brunei, Male, Chiang Mai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Kochi, Sihanoukville and Siem Reap. The AirAsia group also recommenced its Miri to Singapore route.