KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 10): Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) handled 13.9% more passengers in October this year, with 7.32 million passing through the 39 airports in the country it manages compared with 6.42 million in the same month in 2015.

Including Istanbul's Sabiha Gökçen International Airport (SGIA), the airport operator handled 11% more passengers amounting to 9.92 million from 8.93 million in October 2015. SGIA handled 3.5% more passengers amounting to 2.6 million in October 2016, compared with 2.51 million a year ago.

In a statement today, MAHB said the overall passenger traffic growth of MAHB's system of airports in October 2016 was mainly driven by its airports in Malaysia as SGIA was still recovering from the unforeseen recent events in Turkey that had dampened passenger traffic.

MAHB's filing with Bursa Malaysia today also showed international passenger numbers in its Malaysian airports grew 12.9% to 3.57 million in October 2016, from 3.16 million a year ago; while domestic passenger movements rose 14.9% to 3.75 million from 3.26 million.

The Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) in Sepang handled 14.2% more passengers at 4.36 million in October 2016 from 3.82 million a year ago. The number of passengers recorded by the other MAHB airports also grew 13.5% to 2.96 million from 2.6 million.

Meanwhile, KLIA's main terminal passenger traffic for October 2016 jumped 34.2% year-on-year to 2.16 million from 1.61 million a year ago, offset by a 0.3% decrease in klia2 traffic to 2.21 million.

"The continued year-on-year double-digit growth of KLIA Main Terminal was attributable to improvements in Malaysia Airlines Bhd's domestic and international traffic, as well as Malindo Airways Sdn Bhd’s growth after the transfer to KLIA Main Terminal (from klia2) since March 15, 2016," said MAHB.

In the January-October 2016 period, there were 72.53 million passengers passing through MAHB's Malaysian airports, up 5.4% from 68.8 million a year ago.

Including SGIA, MAHB handled 5.5% more passengers at 97.66 million during the period under review from 92.6 million a year ago.

Of the 72.53 million total, international passenger numbers grew 7.3% to 35.3 million from 32.89 million in the first 10 months of 2015; while domestic passengers saw a 3.7% increase to 37.22 million from 35.91 million.

In terms of overall aircraft movements at the 39 airports in the country, MAHB recorded a 4.5% increase to 69,324 in October 2016 from 66,325 a year ago.

However, aircraft movements in the first 10 months of 2016 fell 1.7% to 668,408 from 679,832 in the same period last year.

MAHB shares closed down six sen or 0.93% at RM6.37 today, with 1.12 million shares done. Its market capitalisation stood at RM10.64 billion.