THE introduction of three new airlines and multiple new routes by existing partner airlines across Malaysia Airports Group’s network in Malaysia have boosted the continued recovery of air travel for the third quarter. 

In a statement today, Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) said it welcomed Salam Air, Super Air Jet and Sichuan Airlines at KL International Airport (KLIA) while existing partner airlines added 12 new destinations and resumed seven routes in addition to their current services. 

“The increase in flight offerings contributed to the total number of local passenger movements last quarter at 21.7 million, a more than 80% recovery of the total quarterly traffic for the first time over the same period in September 2019,” the statement said.

New routes introduced were KUL-Muscat by Salam Air, KUL-Lombok, KUL-Pekanbaru and KUL-Surabaya by Super Air Jet, and KUL-Haikou by Sichuan Airlines while new destinations offered by existing airlines from KLIA are Auckland, Jeddah and Okinawa by Batik Air Malaysia, Chengdu by AirAsia X, Air China and Batik Air Malaysia, and Shanghai Pudong by China Eastern. 

New services from Penang are Kuala Namu by Batik Air Indonesia, Guilin by Batik Air Malaysia, Hong Kong by AirAsia, and Xiamen by Xiamen Airlines while new services from Langkawi are Chengdu by Batik Air Malaysia and from Kota Kinabalu International Airport is Beijing Daxing by AirAsia. 

MAHB also said Batik Air Malaysia resumed services to Hong Kong, Zhengzhou, Adelaide and Chennai from KLIA whereas AirAsia X resumed its Kuala Lumpur-Raja Sansi route.

The group registered 6.9 million passenger movements for airports in Malaysia, or 67% of the group’s performance at 10.3 million for last month.

Despite the typhoon affecting some parts of China, Hong Kong, Macau, Philippines, Taiwan and Japan last month, MAHB said the group’s local airports registered 3.3 million total international passengers, reaching 79.3%, the highest traffic recovery for monthly traffic over 2019 levels. 

“The domestic sector registered 3.6 million passenger movements, reaching 86.7% of 2019 levels. Overall, performance for Malaysia in September reached 83% of September 2019,” it said.

Meanwhile, the group’s airport in Turkey, Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen International Airport (SAW) recorded 3.4 million total passenger movements last month. This was encouraging as it continued to sustain above the three million mark at the end of the summer travel season, the statement said.

SAW’s International and domestic passenger movements registered 1.8 million and 1.7 million passengers, respectively, last month, or a 52:48 mix of international to domestic passengers. 

“On a quarterly basis, it reached 10.9 million passenger movements with international and domestic sectors registering 5.6 million and 5.3 million passengers, respectively; or 133.5% and 89.8% of 2019 levels,” it said. – Bernama, October 20, 2023.