KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 10): Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd's (MAHB) passenger traffic kicked off to a good start this year, with 7.83 million passengers passing through the 39 airports it manages in the country in January up 13.3% from 6.92 million a year ago.

This was driven by double digit growth in both international and domestic passenger traffic, as people travel during the Chinese New Year holiday period. International traffic for the month saw a 14% increase to 4.05 million compared with 3.55 million a year ago, while domestic traffic grew 12.5% to 3.78 million from 3.36 million.

Taking into account total number of passengers handled at Istanbul's Sabiha Gökçen International Airport (SGIA), which fell 4.5% to 2.15 million from 2.25 million, MAHB said systemwide, it handled 8.9% more passengers in January this year to 9.98 million from 9.17 million in January 2016.

"The overall passenger traffic growth of MAHB system of airports in January 2017 was mainly driven by MAHB’s airports in Malaysia," said the airport operator in a statement today.

"These increases were contributed by both local and foreign airlines that grew passenger traffic by 15.5% and 11.3% respectively. Twenty-seven airlines including Malaysia Airlines Bhd, AirAsia X Bhd and Malindo Airways Sdn Bhd recorded double digit increases in international passengers over January 2016," MAHB added.

KL International Airport (KLIA) in Sepang handled 4.82 million passengers in January 2017, up 15.3% from 4.18 million a year ago. International traffic registered a growth of 13.6% to 3.5 million from 3.08 million, while domestic passenger movements rose 19.8% to 1.32 million from 1,.1 million. 

In January 2017, the main terminal (KLIA Main) handled 2.37 million passengers, up 38.4% from 1.71 million a year ago, while passenger movements through klia2 contracted by a marginal 0.7% to 2.45 million from 2.47 million in January 2016.

Overall aircraft movements through Malaysia airports rose 7.5%, with international and domestic movements registering an increase of 5.9% and 8.4% respectively over January 2016.

"Overall average load factors improved to 73.4% in January this year, an increase by 2.7 percentage points compared with the same month last year," said MAHB.

MAHB shares closed down 10 sen or 1.49% at RM6.60 today, with 4.04 million shares traded. Its market capitalisation stood at RM10.95 billion.