Malaysia Airports Recorded 52% Increase In International Traffic In March Prior To Border Reopening

Malaysia Airports’ network of airports nationwide had recorded 52% increase in international traffic in March compared to the preceding month. The increase recorded by the 420,000 international passenger movements was due to the implementation of various Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) programmes between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, Bangkok, Phuket and Phnom Penh as well as between Penang and Singapore.

KL International Airport (KUL) also welcomed a new international airline, Air India Express’ (IX) on 28 March that serves a three-time weekly flight from Tiruchirappalli International Airport (TRZ) in Tamil Nadu, India. It is the only foreign carrier with a scheduled service between Tiruchirappalli and Kuala Lumpur. Meanwhile, partner airlines also continued to resume more international routes such as Malaysia Airlines (MH) and Malindo Air (OD) flying to Perth (PER) upon reopening of the Australian borders on 3 March. MH resumed flights to five cities in India in March as well, operating to New Delhi (DEL), Bangalore (BLR), Mumbai (BOM), Chennai (MAA) and Hyderabad (HYD).

Dato’ Iskandar Mizal Mahmood, Managing Director of Malaysia Airports said, “We continue to be encouraged by the gradual increase in international passenger movements at our local airports with the reopening of borders on 1 April. Since then, we have been recording a daily average of 20,000 international movements. We are expecting a further increase to this number once Kota Kinabalu International Airport (BKI) begins to receive international passengers this month. Prior to the pandemic, BKI was our 3rd busiest airport for international traffic with an average of 8,460 international passenger movements per day. ”

Last month, the Group recorded a total of 5.31 million passenger movements with its local airports in Malaysia serving the majority of 57% or 3.03 million passengers. Its Turkish asset, Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen International Airport (SAW) served a total of 2.29 million passengers with 1.15 million international and 1.14 million domestic passengers respectively. For Malaysia, the overall passenger movements increased by 19% in March from February. Its domestic passenger traffic movements also increased by 15% at 2.61 million passengers from the previous month.

With air travel on the rise, Malaysia Airports remains committed in providing a safe and seamless experience to all passengers who pass through our airports.