PETALING JAYA: Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd’s (MAHB) network of airports recorded 2.1 million passenger movements in January 2021, a contraction of 82.6% compared with January 2020.
The international and THE domestic sectors recorded 500,000 and 1.6 million passenger movements with year-on-year contractions of 91.3% and 74% respectively in the same period last year.
On a last-12-months basis, the total MAHB network registered 33.1 million passenger movements. Overall aircraft movements declined by 72.1% over January 2020, while international and domestic aircraft movements contracted by 80.1% and 66.8% respectively.
Airports in Malaysia registered 800,000 passenger movements in January 2021, a contraction of 91.6% on-year over the same period in 2020.
“Malaysia passenger movements continued to be affected by the interstate travel ban under the movement control order imposed from Jan 13, 2021. The renewed restriction was imposed in response to the resurgence of Covid-19 cases that recorded new high daily cases,” MAHB said when announcing its passenger traffic snapshot today.
Despite low passenger volumes, MAHB continued its efforts to ensure that all airports are at the highest level of safety for passengers and crew. Efforts were also carried out on improving services and airport readiness as advance preparation for air travel resumption. MAHB launched the new passenger reconciliation system this month at KL International Airport, providing seamless travel experience for passengers with minimal queue.
International and domestic sectors recorded 100,000 and 700,000 passenger movements with 97.9% and 84.6% reduction respectively over the same corresponding period last year. Overall aircraft movements decreased by 78.3%.
International and domestic aircraft movements decreased by 87.3% and 72.4% respectively. Overall average load factor was 40.7%, with domestic sector recording 54.7%, a fall of 12.2 percentage points over January 2020, partly due to the renewed interstate travel restrictions.
KLIA registered less than 300,000 passenger movements. International and domestic sectors recorded decreases of 97.6% and 88.0% respectively. KLIA Main and klia2 recorded just over 100,000 passengers each. Overall aircraft movements at KLIA decreased by 85.8% for January 2021. International and domestic aircraft movements decreased by 87.4% and 82.4% respectively.
The 38 Malaysian airports other than KLIA/KUL operated by Malaysia Airports Sdn Bhd (MASB) registered 500,000 passenger movements in January 2021, a contraction of 86.4%. International and domestic passenger movements contracted by 99.6% and 82.9% respectively over January 2020. Overall aircraft movements at MASB airports declined by 72.2% for January 2021.
International and domestic aircraft movements decreased by 87.0% and 69.4% respectively.
Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen International Airport (Istanbul SGIA) passenger movements contracted by 55.4% in January 2021. International and domestic passenger movements decreased by 66% and 48% respectively. Total aircraft movements fell by 45.8% for the same period. The international and domestic movements decreased by 52.3% and 40.7%.
Istanbul SGIA continued to show resilience, recording 1.3 million passenger movements in January 2021.
“MAHB is monitoring closely on the latest developments and challenges regarding the new virus variants and the vaccine roll out for Malaysia, Turkey and the surrounding regions. The positive impact of vaccine to air travel in Malaysia is expected to be more pronounced once the healthcare workforce, high-risks population are vaccinated in the first batch of vaccination list and the rest of the population from May onwards,” it said.
MAHB expects a gradual recovery in the domestic sector in Malaysia over the next few months once the daily Covid cases are reduced, interstate travel restrictions are relaxed, and confidence of air travellers builds up with the increasing number of people vaccinated.
KLIA registered 300,000 passenger movements. – MAHB website pix
