KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 10): Passengers who passed through Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd’s (MAHB’s) network of airports including the group’s Turkey Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen International Airport (ISG), grew 6% in November to 11.5 million from 10.84 million last year.

Its Malaysian airports alone saw 4.7% growth in passenger movements to 8.64 million in November from 8.25 million in the same month last year, with KLIA terminals passenger movements growing 3.6% to 5.14 million from 4.96 million previously.

ISG, meanwhile, saw passenger traffic rising 10.2% to 2.86 million from 2.6 million, according to its stock exchange filing today.

Year-to-date (YTD), MAHB network of airports handled 127.83 million passengers in the January-November period, 5.6% more than 121.08 million passengers in the same period last year.

This came from a 6.2% growth in YTD passenger movements at its Malaysian airports to 95.21 million passengers from 89.66 million passenger in previous corresponding period, while ISG passengers rose 3.9% to 32.63 million from 31.42 million.

In terms of aircraft traffic, MAHB said there was an increase of 3.6% to 93,319 aircraft movements throughout its airports in November, compared with last year’s 90,091 aircraft.

Traffic growth momentum, which picked up in June this year, has continued through November, MAHB said.

“The November performance could be viewed as a positive sign for the coming year, both in terms of airlines seat capacity provision and the potential demand for air travel,” it said.

ISG, meanwhile, continued to register double-digit growth for the international sector and the domestic sector is recording a growth after a year of decline, it noted.

“Malaysia’s moderate growth in passenger movements in November was partly contributed by the single-digit domestic growth. This is after several months of double-digit growth, following a prolonged reduction previously.

“This is also partly due to November being an uneventful month, with some school holidays in the last week,” it added.

MAHB’s share price gained two sen or 0.25% to RM8.06 today, giving it a market capitalization of RM13.37 billion.