KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 10): Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) handled 3.5% more passengers in August 2015 driven mainly by the international sector and increased traffic in klia2.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia, MAHB said a total of 7.15 million passengers travelled across the 39 airports it operates in August this year compared to 6.904 million passengers in August last year.

International passengers grew 6.1% to 3.52 million in August this year compared to 3.32 million in August last year while domestic passengers grew 1.2% to 3.63 million compared to 3.59 million in August last year.

MAHB said although KLIA passengers grew by 4.5% in August 2015, KLIA Main Terminal traffic decreased by 6.3% while klia2 grew by 15.2%.

Year-to-date (YTD), the total number of passengers grew 2% to 55.7 million compared to 54.63 million in the corresponding period last year.

YTD growth of international passengers was dismal at 0.3%, which was 26.64 million compared to 26.57 million passengers in the corresponding period last year, while domestic passengers grew 3.6% to 29.06 million compared to 28.07 million in the corresponding period last year.

Meanwhile passenger traffic for KLIA Main terminal declined 8.2% to 23.8 million passengers while klia2 recorded an increase of 8% in passenger volume to 25.3 million in the same corresponding period.

Overall aircraft movements at KLIA in August increased by 5.1% with an average load factor of 73.5%.

The Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen International Airport (ISGIA) registered a growth of 21.4% to 3.11 million passengers in August 2015 compared to 2.56 million passengers in August 2014.

YTD, the airport registered a 19.1% growth to 18.54 million passengers compared to 15.57 million passengers recorded in the same period a year ago.

Inclusive of ISGIA, MAHB airports registered a growth of 8.4% to 10.26 million passengers in August 2015 compared to 9.47 million passengers in August 2014.

MAHB said the 8.4% growth in passengers was encouraging in light of current global adverse conditions, as the 10.3 million passengers is the higher number of passengers MAHB has recorded thus far.

The total international passenger movement of 3.5 million in August 2015 was the highest monthly figure for this year.

MAHB said passenger growth momentum for the Malaysian sector was high in the first two weeks of August but there was a slow down towards the end of the month, which was attributed to the current volatility in China and the currency market.

MAHB noted the 1997/1998 currency crisis did cause a significant dent in traffic growth but does not expect it to repeat this time.

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