KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 20): Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) recorded 5.2 million passenger movements for its 39 airports in the country in November, reaching 60% of what was posted for the same month in 2019, before the Covid-19 outbreak in 2020.

This was more than double the 2.3 million passenger movements recorded for the same month last year.

MAHB said airports in Malaysia recorded 2.9 million domestic passenger movements last month, despite November being a typically slower month.

"The 15th general election, which took place on Nov 19, contributed to the domestic traffic surge of 11.8% in the third week of November against the second week of the month, with an average daily passenger of 106,000 as voters travelled to cast their votes," it said in a stock exchange filing.

Malaysia's international passenger movement volume also continued to recover in November, recording 2.2 million, a significant increase from the 150,000 seen in the same month last year, when international borders had yet to reopen.

This brought total MAHB system passenger movements to 7.8 million in November, including volume from the group's Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen International Airport (SGIA), representing year-on-year growth of 66% from 4.7 million last year.

For the first 11 months of 2022 (11M2022), passenger volume for airports in Malaysia jumped six times to 45.86 million from 7.61 million seen in the same period last year, due to low base effect.

This brought total 11M2022 volume in the MAHB system to 74.31 million after including Istanbul SGIA numbers, more than double the 30.73 million recorded in the same period last year.

"There was a large improvement in passenger movements over October 2022 from Northeast Asia, Southwest Pacific and South Asia via city-pair destinations such as Hong Kong, Incheon, Haneda, Perth, Melbourne, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kathmandu and Mumbai," said the airports operator.

In terms of aircraft movements, Kuala Lumpur International Airport's volume more than doubled to 21,090 in November from 10,239 in the same month last year, while other airports in Malaysia collectively recorded 26% growth over the same period to 28,982, from 23,056.

This brought total aircraft movements' growth in November to 50,072 from 33,295, a 50% increase.

For 11M2022, MAHB's total aircraft movements in Malaysia more than doubled to 491,424, from 193,959 in the same period last year.

Shares of MAHB closed one sen or 0.15% higher at RM6.55 per share on Tuesday (Dec 20), giving it a market capitalisation of RM10.87 billion.