MAHB’s 1Q24 traffic hits more than 90% recovery rate against 1Q19

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) recorded the highest traffic across the 39 airports it manages locally, in the first quarter of 2024 (1Q24) at 21.8 million passengers since 2020, reaching 85.9% of 1Q19 traffic.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia, MAHB said the international sector contributed 53.7% or 11.7 million passengers with an 89.4% recovery rate over 1Q19, while the domestic sector recorded 10.1 million passengers reaching 82.2% of 1Q19 levels.

“There were 1,386 additional weekly frequencies in 1Q24 compared to 1Q23, mainly driven by new airline operations namely, Air Macau with four weekly frequency, Loong Air with three weekly frequency, Turkmenistan Airlines with two weekly frequencies from Kuala Lumpur International Airport and Flydubai with daily service operate between Penang and Langkawi to Dubai,” the airport operator said.

MAHB said it achieved a more than 90% recovery rate against 1Q19 with 31.4 million passenger movements in 1Q24.

The group noted that for the first time, international passenger movements have surpassed 1Q19 by 5% registering 16.9 million for 1Q24. This was driven by Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen International Airport (SGIA) airlines’ strong network international expansion which recorded a double-digit recovery rate of 73.8% over the same quarter in 2019.

On the other hand, domestic passenger movements posted 14.5 million with an 82.9% recovery rate over 2019 levels.

“This is an indication that airlines are expanding more to the international sector compared to domestic,” the group said.

MAHB stated SGIA passenger movements fully recovered in 1Q24 and recorded growth of 17% over 1Q19 at 9.5 million passengers.

“SGIA 1Q24 passenger movements have reached normalisation and continue to grow, recording more than three million passengers each month. It is also noteworthy that the 1Q24 total passenger movements for SGIA has exceeded 1Q19 by 17.3%, mainly contributed by airlines’ continuous expansion to the international sector and surpassing the 2019 level by 73.8%,” the group said.

For March, Malaysia recorded positive traffic development, underpinned mainly by new airline operations, school holiday breaks and Chinese New Year festive seasons. Despite the fasting period where travelling trends are generally slow, Malaysia’s total passenger movements in March recorded above seven million.

International and domestic passenger movements recorded 3.8 million and 3.2 million passengers, reaching 85.8% and 72.8% respectively over March 2019.

Other supporting factors include airlines resuming routes and introducing new services, the 30-day visa-free waiver for China and India travellers to Malaysia, 15-day visa-waiver to China, as well as new aircraft delivery.

Going forward, MAHB said it will continue to monitor the recent conflict in West Asia and the possible impact on jet fuel and higher operating cost as airlines reroute flights to avoid specific airspace.