KUALA LUMPUR (July 9): AirAsia Group Bhd received the highest number of Air Traffic Rights (ATR) in the second quarter of 2019 (2Q19), ahead of Malaysia Airlines Bhd and Malindo Air.
In a statement today, the Malaysian Aviation Commission (Mavcom) said for the period of April 1 to June 30, its ATR applications saw a 100% approval rate — 51 allocations in total with one partially approved application.
The regulator, in conjunction with the release of its second quarterly ATR update, said of the 51 applications, 37.3% were for domestic routes while 62.7% were for international routes.
Mavcom said it approved ATR for 19 domestic routes, 22 for routes to ASEAN destinations, five for destinations in China, two for destinations in India and three for other Asian destinations.
It said of the 51 ATR, 36 of them were issued for flights originating from Kuala Lumpur International Airport, six from Kota Kinabalu International Airport, and the remaining nine from other Malaysian airports.
It added that Kuala Lumpur, in particular, saw a 38.5% increase compared to 26 ATR in the first quarter.
Mavcom said AirAsia received 22 ATR, while Malaysia Airlines and Malindo followed with 19 and 18 allocations respectively for the same period.
Furthermore, it said a total of 33 ATR that were previously approved were not utilised by the respective airlines and were subsequently returned to Mavcom during 2Q19.
Mavcom said the highest number of unused ATR was from the AirAsia Group with 19, followed by Malindo Air with 10.
It said an additional four applications were also voluntarily withdrawn by the airlines in that period.
Meanwhile, for the six-month period of Jan 1 to June 30, Mavcom had approved 100% of the cumulative 104 ATR applications it received.
Mavcom said that during this period, it had approved 36 domestic ATR, 35 for ASEAN destinations, 16 for destinations in China, and the remaining 17 for other Asian destinations and Australia.
The AirAsia Group received the highest number of ATR allocations for the first half of the year, with 38.