Malaysia airports' passengers fall to 6.8 million

Malaysia airports registered 6.8 million passengers, a decrease of 2.7 percent for November 2015 year-on-year over November 2014.

In a filing to Bursa Malaysia yesterday, Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB), said international and domestic sectors recorded 3.2 million and 3.6 million passengers, a decline of 1.2 percent and 3.9 percent, respectively.

"Overall, aircraft movements decreased by 5.7 per cent with a reduction of international and domestic movements by 3.2 percent and 7.1 percent respectively over November 2014.

"The Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) passenger movements decreased by 0.9 percent in November 2015 and the KLIA Main Terminal traffic dropped by 13.7 percent. The klia2, however, grew by 11 percent," it said.

MAHB said for the 12 months, passenger traffic for KLIA's Main terminal recorded 22.9 million passengers, a decline of 8.4 percent, while klia2 recorded 26 million, an increase of nine per cent over the corresponding period, last year.

"November traffic was affected by routes and frequencies cuts by Malaysia Airlines which is undergoing restructuring. This has resulted in a double-digit percentage year-on-year decline in Malaysia Airlines passenger carriage," it said.

MAHB said this trend has occurred more than once, at the onset of each major restructuring initiatives over the last decade.

Meanwhile, it said, AirAsia's traffic improved by close to double-digits and Malindo's by over 20 percent.

"China Southern, Eva Airways, Vietnam Airlines and Qatar Airways also recorded similar growth while Tiger Airways, Turkish Airlines and Xiamen Airlines registered a growth of over 30 percent.

"Meanwhile, the overall average load factors recorded for international and domestic sectors were encouraging for November 2015, indicating demand potential for air travel remains resilient," it said.