62% of foreign carriers have resumed operations since Malaysian border opening

55 out of 89, or 62% of foreign airlines have resumed operations at all five international airports in Malaysia i.e., KL International Airport (KUL), Langkawi International Airport (LGK), Penang International Airport (PEN), Kota Kinabalu International Airport (BKI) and Kuching International Airport (KCH).

Among the airlines that introduced new international destinations in August included Batik Air Malaysia (OD) which commenced Phuket from KUL with seven flights weekly. Malaysia Airlines Berhad (MAB) commenced two new direct services, KUL – Haneda with two flights weekly and BKI – Singapore with three flights weekly. Firefly (FY) resumed Phuket service from PEN with four flights weekly.

This had led to the Malaysia Airports Group (the Group) registering 1.7 million international passenger movements in August 2022 for its Malaysia operations, a 7.1% increase when compared to the preceding month. Other than resumption of flights and introduction of new routes, other factors that contributed to the increase were relaxation of visa requirements by Saudi Arabia leading to more Umrah flights; and easing of travel entry requirements for foreign travellers into Malaysia. International passenger movements for the Group’s Turkiye operations had also increased by 4.9% to 1.5 million arising from the summer holiday period.

Meanwhile, domestic passenger movements for Malaysia operations recorded 3.1 million passengers and Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen International Airport, (ISG) 1.6 million which are respectively 65.7% and 79.1% of pre-pandemic levels in 2019. All these had contributed to the Group’s recovery where total passenger movements for the Group stood at 7.9 million passengers (Malaysia: 4.8 million; ISG: 3.1 million) – the highest passenger volume recorded for the year thus far.