KUALA LUMPUR (July 16): Malaysia Airport Holdings Bhd’s Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen International Airport (SGIA) in Turkey has moved towards normalisation after it breached the two million-mark of registered passengers in June, for the first time since March 2020.

The SGIA registered 2.24 million passengers last month following the easing border restrictions on June 10, MAHB said in its passenger traffic snapshot. The last time was in February 2020 with 2.63 million passengers registered. SGIA passenger snapshot averaged just under 3 million passengers per month in 2019.

Meanwhile, MAHB’s Malaysian airports saw 187,000 passengers in June, down 57.1% from 435,000 in the same month last year, amid decline in both KLIA and the other local airports MAHB operates.

However, MAHB noted that while Malaysia passenger traffic was restrained by travel restrictions, airlines began to progressively operate more cargo flights.

“In June 2021, the number of cargo flights including charters increased by three-fold over pre-Covid level and registered 26.4% growth in cargo movements over June 2020, or 11.7% more than June 2019 cargo load recorded.

“There was an increase in cargo flights to Australia, India, Indonesia, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Korea in June 2021.

“Equally, domestic cargo movements for June 2021 registered double-digit growth of approximately 20.0% over June 2020, or 35.4% over June 2019, partly driven by e-commerce activities, shipments of perishable goods and some pharmaceuticals,” it said.

In total, MAHB’s network of airports recorded 2.43 million passengers in June — up 153.2% from 960,000 in the month last year.

Meanwhile aircraft count rose 68.1% to 27,563 from 16,400, also supported by SGIA’s over three-fold increase while aircraft count in Malaysia fell 3.2%.

For the first half of 2021 (1H2021), MAHB’s airports saw a 55.5% decline year-on-year to 12 million passengers from 1H2020 levels, while aircraft movements contracted by 58.7% in the same period.

Shares of MAHB rose 13 sen or 2.28% to RM5.83 at 3.05pm, valuing the group at RM9.56 billion.