MALAYSIA’s airports registered 1.4 million passengers in August while air traffic also saw an increase of 7% to 24,209 compared to the preceding month.

Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) said there was a substantial increase in flight frequencies by airlines at all airports in Malaysia, with the Kuala Lumpur International Airport seeing a 33% hike.

Airports in Penang, Langkawi, Kota Kinabalu and Kuching showed a combined increase of 75%.

“This was mainly due to the newly launched reciprocal green lane (RGL) with Singapore that saw the three local airlines as well as foreign carriers Scoot Airlines and Jetstar Asia resuming operations for these routes.

“Domestic air travellers had also taken advantage of the school holiday breaks, Independence Day and Awal Muharram long weekends to visit local tourism destinations,” MAHB said in a statement today.

The airport operator continues to see an increase in flight frequencies and new routes by its airline partners for both commercial and cargo operations in Malaysia for last month.

This, it said, has led to a steady increase in monthly total passenger movements that continues to surpass the one million mark from July.

Group chief executive officer Mohd Shukrie Mohd Salleh said the domestic sector is still the main driver in MAHB’s gradual traffic recovery with 90% of its total passenger traffic made up of domestic travellers.

“We are happy to see signs of the public regaining confidence in the safety of air travel as evident by the demand shown from the increase in flight frequencies. KUL currently registers 149 flight frequency per week,” he said.

Meanwhile, Malaysia Airports’ Turkish operations at Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen International Airport also continues to register a 50% increase for both passenger traffic and aircraft movements, to 1.8 million and 13,472, respectively.

Three foreign airlines had recently resumed operations at Sabiha Gokcen due to upturns in forward bookings and load factor.

“Pobeda, Jazeera and Nile Air each has resumed daily, three and four times weekly flight frequencies respectively in August 2020.

“With the encouraging increase at Sabiha Gokcen, MAHB has now surpassed the three million mark from the earlier two in the preceding month for total passenger traffic movements at its entire network of airports,” Shukrie added. – Bernama, September 11, 2020.