KUALA LUMPUR: Vibrant developments in terms of route resumption and introduction of new destinations by airlines in November and December continue to signal recovery for the aviation sector in Malaysia.
During the two months, Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd welcomed two new airlines and witnessed the resumption of four pre-pandemic route services as well as the introduction of one new international route.
On top of that, Emirates brought back the Airbus A380, which is the world's largest commercial aircraft, to operate the Dubai-Kuala Lumpur route.
"This strategic move was made to cater to more passengers as the A380 is able to handle twice the load of the current Boeing 777 that is also being utilised for the same route," MAHB said today.
A total of 13,869 aircraft movements were recorded at Kuala Lumpur airports in November, up 12 per cent from the previous month.
Contributing factors to this increase included the introduction of new Chinese low-cost carrier Spring Airlines as the only airline flying from Nanning once weekly.
AirAsia X also resumed its Kuala Lumpur-Jeddah route flying six times weekly, providing affordable travel options for Muslims who wish to perform their Umrah.
Meanwhile, Kuantan Airport saw the resumption of Fly Scoot's operations for the Singapore-Kuantan route.
This three-time weekly service also marks the airport's first international flight after the pandemic.
"These positive developments continued into December with the introduction of the country's latest low-cost airline, MYAirline flying from Kuala Lumpur to Kota Kinabalu Langkawi, Kuching, Kota Bharu and Penang daily.
There is also the resumption of international routes such as AirAsia X servicing the Kuala Lumpur-Taipei route three times weekly and Cathay Pacific for the Hong Kong-Penang route three times weekly.
A further sign to the recovery of air travel demand can be seen from AirAsia's introduction of the Singapore-Sibu four times weekly flight service this month too.
In regard to monthly passenger movements, MAHB said Malaysia operations recorded 2.23 million international passengers in November, a 5.9 per cent increase from the preceding month.
Domestic passenger movements recorded an 11.5 per cent decrease at 2.93 million passengers bringing the total passenger movements in Malaysia to 5.17 million.
As a group, Malaysia Airports registered a total of 7.84 million passengers with its Turkish asset, Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen International Airport recording 2.66 million passengers for the month.