KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 10): Passenger traffic at the 39 airports in the countries Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) operates in rose 1.3% in September to 7.75 million from 7.65 million in the same month last year.

International traffic climbed 0.9% year-on-year (y-o-y) to 4 million passengers, while domestic traffic rose 1.6% y-o-y to 3.75 million passengers.

“There was double-digit growth in passenger movements to and from Oman, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Vietnam, Ethiopia and Iraq in September,” MAHB said in a filing with Bursa Malaysia today.

Passenger traffic at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) Main Terminal fell 0.9% y-o-y to 2.18 million in September from 2.19 million, while passenger traffic at klia2 also fell by 0.8% to 2.45 million from 2.47 million.

This was due to 1.4% y-o-y decline in international passengers to 3.35 million, which was offset by an 0.8% increase in domestic passengers to 1.28 million.

“There have been increasing intra-domestic passenger movements among non-KLIA airports which used to flow significantly through KLIA in the past.

“There have also been increasing direct international services to the non-KLIA airports compared to previously,” said MAHB.

“This, in a way has reduced some movements through KLIA Main Terminal and klia2,” it added.

Meanwhile, the Sabiha Gökçen International Airport in Istanbul, Turkey (Istanbul SGIA) posted a 4.1% growth in passenger count to 3.07 million from 2.95 million in September last year.

With that, Istanbul SGIA’s passenger count has stayed above three million for three consecutive months, said MAHB. “International and domestic passenger movements [in Istanbul SGIA] recorded an increase of 6.8% and 2.7% respectively,” it added.

Systemwide including its Istanbul operations in Turkey, MAHB saw a 2% increase in passenger traffic to 10.81 million in September from 10.6 million last year.

The month also saw overall aircraft movements across the MAHB system increase by 3%, with international and domestic aircraft movements recording an increase of 2.9% and 3% respectively over September 2017.

In the third quarter of 2018 (3QCY18), MAHB recorded 3.1% more passengers across all airports under its management to 34.5 million, backed by a 7.6% y-o-y increase in Istanbul SGIA and a 1.5% increase y-o-y in Malaysian airports, although the KLIA Main Terminal registered a 3.8% decline.

“While the airlines seat capacity offerings have improved, there has been a small drop in the average load factor,” said MAHB.

MAHB shares closed down 3 sen or 0.35% at RM8.55 today, with 4.59 million shares done, bringing it a market capitalisation of RM14.19 billion.