Friday 29 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 12): Total passengers at Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd's (MAHB) local airports showed a 2.7% year-on-year (y-o-y) decrease in December 2015 to 8.06 million.

However, the airport operator said the number was "better than expected", with the month's average load factor of 79.3% being the monthly highest in two years.

MAHB's filing with Bursa Malaysia today showed that for the full year, its Malaysian airports' traffic growth inched up by 0.5% to 83.73 million, from 2014's 83.35 million.

But upon adding its recent Turkish acquisition Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen International Airport (SGIA) into the equation, MAHB's total passenger growth was 4.7% in 2015, at 112.01 million. In December alone, total traffic increased by 1.9% y-o-y to 10.31 million.

MAHB said its local airports' traffic performance was better than expected in the last two months of the year, despite the plummeting numbers.

"Among the airports that registered an increase [in] traffic in 2015 include Kota Bharu, Subang, Langkawi, Penang, Alor Setar, Ipoh and Melaka. Ipoh and Melaka experienced very high growth rates (more than 100%) with the improved facilities and ASEAN liberalisation, albeit from a relatively much more modest base," MAHB said.

The group said its local airports' total traffic was affected in 2015 by frequencies and route cuts, impact from the haze, China's economic slowdown and the local economy itself being "unfavourable".

Making matters worse was Malaysia Airlines' cuts in travelling frequencies and available seat capacity, which MAHB said was at a double-digit rate.

"AirAsia X has also been facing difficulties and there has been geo-political (Middle-East) and consumer confidence issues (as indicated by MIER surveys) after the global oil price drop," it said.

MAHB said that, with Malaysians spending less and the ringgit's depreciation, it was no surprise that people travelled to domestic destinations rather than abroad. Domestic passenger growth for the year was 1.2% y-o-y at 43.74 million, although its flagship Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) had a flat growth.

International passengers, meanwhile, inched down by 0.4% in 2015 to 39.99 million.

However, for December specifically both the domestic and international traffic of MAHB's Malaysian airports fell. Passengers flying to local destinations dropped by 3% to 4.17 million, whereas international routes fell by 2.3% y-o-y to 3.897 million.

Nonetheless, MAHB said confidence in China markets is beginning to pick up again, after MAS flight 370's disappearance in March 2014.

"Destinations such as Chongqing, Fuzhou, Tianjin, Xian, Xiamen and Zhengzhou achieved double- and triple-digit growth in passengers," the airport operator said.

"India, Pakistan and certain Middle East markets also recorded commendable growth rates," it added.

Aircraft traffic growth for 2015 in MAHB's local airports was 2.9%, at 814,472, with domestic flights making up the bulk and pushing the growth. Including SGIA, aircraft traffic increased by 5.8% to 1.02 million.

For 2016, MAHB expected the number of passengers handled by its Malaysian airports to grow by 2.5% from 2015's numbers, to 86 million. The operator said total aircraft would also grow by a similar quantum of 2.4%.

"In total, MAHB system of airports is expected to handle over 120 million passenger movements, at over 7% growth above 2015," it added.

(Note: The Edge Research's fundamental score reflects a company's profitability and balance sheet strength, calculated based on historical numbers. The valuation score determines if a stock is attractively valued or not, also based on historical numbers. A score of 3 suggests strong fundamentals and attractive valuations.)

 

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