KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 11): Passenger traffic up to August grew 7.9% year-on-year (y-o-y), underpinned by healthy growth in the international and domestic segment, said airports operator Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB).

MAHB said in a statement with Bursa Malaysia today that it recorded 54.6 million passengers in the eight-month period, with international and domestic sector growing by 7.4% and 8.3% respectively.

Meanwhile, at its flagship Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), passenger traffic had increased 6.1% y-o-y to 32.3 million passengers during the eight-month period.

At KLIA, international and domestic traffic grew by 7.9% and 1.9% respectively. Meanwhile, aircraft movements at the airport also grew by 7.7% for the same reporting period.

However, while cumulative traffic showed increase, MAHB saw a 5.2% y-o-y decline in overall passenger traffic in August 2014, to 6.9 million passengers.

The international and domestic movements in August recorded a decline of 3.8% and 6.4% respectively, it said, explaining that August 2014 was rather a non-event month, in comparison to August 2013.

The sharp decline in domestic segment was partly expected, as home-based carriers continued to focus on growing international routes and frequencies, according to MAHB.

As for the numbers from KLIA alone in August, MAHB said passenger traffic declined by 6.1% y-o-y. Domestic segment declined by 13.5% over the same reporting period, while international segment declined by 2.8%.

Meanwhile, Klia2 passenger movements in August 2014 registered a growth of 7.1% over August 2013 (at the Low Cost Carrier Terminal), whilst KLIA-Main traffic decreased by 16.5%.

“This is in large, part attributable to the shift of Lion Air and Malindo Air from KLIA-Main to klia2. There was also a marginal drop in passenger movements observed, two weeks after the downing of MH17,” MAHB said.

According to MAHB, promotional tourism events have been scaled down significantly in the aftermath of MH370 and MH17, and this seems to have had some negative impact on both international and domestic traffic.

Moving forward, MAHB remains cautiously optimistic that full-year growth remains just a little softer than actual traffic growth to-date. “Traffic in the coming months may experience some lift from back-ended school holidays in September this year,” it reasoned.

Meanwhile, MAHB noted that the newly-announced recovery plan for Malaysia Airlines provides optimism on its future prospects, “We foresee Malaysia Airlines will continue to play an important role in the full service market, and its presence in the oneworld alliance will continue to provide the extensive connectivity that domestic carriers may not directly provide.”