KUALA LUMPUR (June 11): Passenger count across 39 Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB)-managed airports in the country fell 3.5% on-year to 7.67 million in May this year, from 7.95 million previously.

In a Bursa Malaysia filing today, MAHB said the decline was "mainly due to a more subdued air travel demand during the Ramadhan fasting season and shift in school holidays in Malaysia".

"The two-week school holidays in 2018 was scheduled to June 2018 (June 11-24) to coincide with the Eid al-Fitr festival season that is expected to fall on June 15 and 16, 2018.

"The downward trend in traffic was similar to the decline experienced in 2017 and in previous years during Ramadhan," said MAHB.

Domestic passenger traffic led with 6.4% decline year-on-year (y-o-y) to 3.71 million flyers from 3.96 million, while international passenger count fell 0.6% to 3.96 million, from 3.99 million previously.

"International traffic registered lower movements partly due to unexpectedly [less] travel leading up to the 14th general elections (GE14) and also [less] air travel demand during the Ramadhan fasting season," it said.

In the month, 6% less Malaysians travelled in the international sector, said MAHB. However, growth in traveller count from China and India "remained in the positive range", it added.

MAHB noted that the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) in Sepang saw its passenger count fell 2.8% on-year to 4.66 million.

Out of this, KLIA main terminal saw passenger number fell 8.2% y-o-y to 2.13 million from 2.31 million, amid decline in both international and domestic flyers.

However, klia2 recorded 2.3% more passengers at 2.53 million from 2.47 million previously, as an 8.2% uptick in local flyers mitigated decline in international flyers.

Overall, total aircraft movement slipped 2% in May 2018 — dragged by 5.6% decline in domestic flights, offset by 3.8% uptick in international flights in Malaysia.

"Moving forward, the reduction in the goods and services tax would likely make domestic air travel cheaper," said MAHB.

"The current airlines schedules filed also [indicate] some upswing for domestic sector which has been in the negative territory for almost a year," it said.

Systemwide, MAHB handled 2.3% less passengers on-year in both its Malaysian and Istanbul operations combined at 10.4 million passengers, from 10.64 million.

Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen International Airport's (SGIA) May passenger traffic rose 1.5% to 2.73 million from 2.69 million the year before — helped by an uptick in both domestic and international flights by 1.7% and 0.9% respectively.

"Istanbul SGIA passenger movements [were] also partly affected by Ramadhan as in previous years. Prior to Ramadhan, Istanbul SGIA registered double-digit growth month-on-month from January to April 2018," said MAHB.

At 2pm, MAHB added 0.11% or 1 sen to RM8.86 with 733,700 shares done.