SEPANG - Malaysia Airports Group registered more than 11 million total passenger movements for July 2023, in an ongoing upward trend of steady traffic growth. Malaysia and Türkiye operations both recorded a new high in passenger movements last month with 7.4 million and 3.7 million passenger movements respectively. International and domestic passenger movements were also recorded at the highest volume for the year to date, with 5.4 million international passengers and 5.7 million domestic passengers. These represent 89% and 87% respectively of passenger numbers for the same period in 2019, signalling consistent progress towards a full recovery of pre-pandemic volumes.
For July 2023, international passenger movements in Malaysia increased by almost 10% to 3.5 million passengers from 3.2 million passengers in the preceding month. Domestic passenger movements recorded 3.9 million passengers, which was a 2% increase from 3.8 million passengers in June 2023. The growth from both the international and domestic sectors were contributed by the local school holiday towards the tail end of July, summer holidays in the Northern Hemisphere, gradual return of China travellers, the return of Hajj pilgrims, the operation of new airlines and additional flight frequencies.
Last month, KL International Airport (KUL) welcomed the commencement of Salam Air (OV) from Muscat (MCT) with two flights weekly, while AirAsia X (D7) introduced flights to Chengdu (CTU) three times weekly, and MYAirline (Z9) to Bangkok Don Mueang (DMK) with seven flights weekly from KUL. Batik Air Malaysia (OD) had also commenced two new routes, namely twice weekly to Adelaide (ADL) and four flights weekly to CTU. In East Malaysia, Kota Kinabalu International Airport (BKI) welcomed two new airlines, Loong Air (GJ) from Xi’An Xianyang (XIY) with two flights weekly and Shanghai Airlines (FM) from Shanghai PuDong (PVG) with seven flights weekly. AirAsia (AK) resumed Beijing Daxing (PKX) services with seven flights weekly and Macau (MFM) with two flights weekly. OD resumed its China network with direct flights from BKI and Langkawi (LGK) to CTU once a week.
Meanwhile, Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen International Airport (SAW) continued to show strong traffic momentum, surpassing pre-pandemic passenger volumes for three consecutive months. SAW recorded 3.7 million total passenger movements in July 2023, a growth of 8.6% from the corresponding month in 2019, and a 13% increase from 3.3 million passengers in the preceding month. In tandem with the summer holidays, International passenger movements in July 2023 recorded the highest volume to-date, registering 1.9 million passengers, an 11% increase from 1.7 million passengers in June 2023. Domestic passenger movements recorded 1.8 million passengers, reaching 90% of 2019 July levels, the highest recovery rate for the year. It was also a 16% increase from 1.6 million passengers in June 2023.