KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) handled 12.7% more passengers in July 2015, with strong growth in both domestic and international passenger numbers.

The latest figures showed 7.21 million passengers passed through the 39 airports it operates in the country in July 2015 from 6.4 million in July 2014.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia yesterday, MAHB said international travellers rose 7.7% to 3.48 million in July 2015 from 3.23 million a year ago, while domestic passenger numbers grew 17.9% to 3.73 million from 3.17 million.

The KL International Airport (KLIA) in Sepang saw 10.1% more passengers passing through its gates in July to 4.19 million from 3.81 million in July 2014. Total passenger traffic for KLIA’s main terminal recorded a 2.5% increase to 1.94 million passengers, while that in klia2 grew 17.6% to 2.26 million over the same month last year.

Total passenger numbers passing through the Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen International Airport (SGIA) in Turkey, meanwhile, grew 28.3% to 2.78 million in July 2015 from 2.17 million a year ago.

Including SGIA’s passenger numbers, MAHB handled 16.7% more passengers in July 2015 to 9.99 million from 8.56 million a year ago, which is the highest passenger traffic handled by the airport operator in a month.

“Though the high July 2015 growth was partly due to the lower base numbers during Ramadan 2014, it is noted that the traffic growth continued even at the end of the month. The end of July 2014 was a peak week before Hari Raya, and the fact that the traffic registered a 5.5% positive for the last week of July 2015 is indeed encouraging,” said MAHB.

“Many of the airports registered a double-digit growth in July 2015 over July 2014, including KLIA, Penang, Kota Kinabalu, Kuching, Langkawi, Kota Baru, Alor Setar, Subang, Ipoh, Melaka and Tawau. Some of these airports recorded growth rates as high as 36%,” it added.

For the January to July 2015 period, MAHB saw a 1.7% increase in passenger numbers to 48.56 million passing through its 39 airports in the country from 47.73 million a year ago.

International passengers departing from the 39 airports in the January to July period were 0.6% lower at 23.12 million compared with 23.25 million a year ago, while domestic travellers rose 3.9% to 25.43 million from 24.48 million.

However, KLIA saw a 0.05% drop in passenger numbers to 28.24 million during the first seven months of this year, from 28.26 million a year ago.

Meanwhile, overall aircraft movements at KLIA increased 10% year-on-year in July 2015, with domestic and international ones registering 10.8% and 9.7% growth respectively.

Shares in MAHB (fundamental: 0.8; valuation: 2) closed two sen or 0.39% lower at RM5.09 yesterday, bringing a market capitalisation of RM8.48 billion.

This article first appeared in digitaledge Daily, on August 11, 2015.