KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) recorded a more than six-fold increase in the first half of 2022 (1H22) in total passenger movements for its Malaysia operations.
In the period, MAHB registered a total of 20.25 million passengers through its network of airports nationwide, supported by the active resumption of foreign carriers and international routes that contributed to the encouraging performance.
Managing director Datuk Iskandar Mizal Mahmood said the international traffic in Malaysia is improving, which can be observed from KL International Airport's performance (KLIA) last month.
"KLIA's total international traffic surpassed the one million passenger mark for the first time since the pandemic.
"It recorded 1.09 million international passengers, a 21 per cent increase from May.
"Other international airports in our local network have also recorded increased passenger volumes of between 35 per cent and 66 per cent in June compared to the preceding month," he said.
He also added that MAHB is confident that the performance will improve further with the resumption of more airlines operating at its airports.
For June 2022, Malaysia's total passenger traffic movements stood at 4.54 million passengers, making up 63 per cent of MAHB's total passenger movements of 7.21 million, including Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen International Airport.
Malaysia recorded 1.29 million international traffic passengers while domestic traffic was at 3.24 million.
In June, MAHB welcomed four foreign carriers that recommenced operations in Malaysia.
They included Citilink (QG) and Lion Air (JT) flying the Medan-Kuala Namu–Penang route and Air Busan and Jeju Air flying the Seoul-Incheon–Kota Kinabalu route.
Apart from the return of foreign carriers, the airport operator also witnessed the recommencement of pre-pandemic routes.
Batik Air recommenced the Subang–Batam and Kuala Lumpur–Denpasar routes.
At the same time, Firefly reinstated its Subang–Seletar operations.
Meanwhile, Pakistan International Airlines introduced a new route connecting Lahore to Kuala Lumpur.
MAHB's Turkish operations remained consistent as it recorded a total of 2.68 million passenger movements, an increase of three per cent from May 2022.