KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 10): Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) registered a 7.1% growth in passengers at its network of airports, including Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen International Airport (Istanbul SGIA), to 11.36 million in July 2017 from 10.61 million passengers a year ago.

In its filing with Bursa Malaysia, MAHB said international traffic grew 12.3% year-on-year to 5.32 million passengers, while domestic traffic improved by 2.9% y-o-y to 6.04 million passengers.

Overall aircraft movements grew 2.1%, MAHB noted, with international movements posting a 10.1% increase. However, domestic movements declined by 2.5% from July 2016.

From July 2016 to July 2017, MAHB said its network of airports handled 124.81 million passengers, up 8.5% from the 115.04 million passengers handled between July 2015 and July 2016 — the highest traffic handled over a 12-month period by the network.

Domestically, airports in Malaysia handled 8.34 million passengers in July this year, 5.2% more than the 7.93 million passengers handled in July last year.

The international sector, MAHB said, saw a 11.7% increase in the number of passengers handled, at 4.3 million passengers versus 3.85 million passengers recorded in July last year.

“The 5.2% growth for July is promising considering the shift of Hari Raya festive holidays from July 2016 to June 2017, and the minor decline in domestic travel. The international traffic growth was contributed among others by the shift in Hajj travel season to July 2017, visa relaxation for India and China, competitive fares as well as favourable exchange rate for foreign tourists,” said MAHB.

“In addition, the increased demand was rightly supported by adequate increase in airlines’ international seat capacity,” it added.

However, the domestic sector saw a 1% drop to 4.03 million passengers against 4.07 million passengers in July 2016.

“International traffic for Asean destinations grew 12.8% to 2.1 million passengers whereas non-ASEAN traffic posted a 10.6% growth to 2.2 million passengers,” MAHB said.

According to MAHB, overall aircraft movements grew by 3.7%. While domestic aircraft movement was down by 2% over July 2016, international aircraft movements rose by 13.7%.

Overall average load factor, meanwhile, stood at 77.5% in July 2017, representing a decline of 1.1 percentage points from July 2016.

On the other hand, passenger traffic at the Istanbul SGIA grew by 12.7% to 3.02 million in July this year from 2.68 million a year earlier. MAHB said this is the first double-digit growth since May 2016 and the first time passenger traffic passed the 3 million mark since August 2015.

International and domestic passengers rose by 15% y-o-y and 11.5% y-o-y respectively to 1.02 million passengers and 2 million passengers in July this year.

The growth, MAH said, was achieved despite a decline of 3.4% in total aircraft movements, with both international and domestic aircraft movements recording 1.9% and 4.2% decline respectively.

Nevertheless, the group added: “Istanbul SGIA continued to register growth in passenger traffic for the fifth consecutive month in 2017, with July posting double-digit growth for the first time since May 2016. Among others, this is an indication of confidence returning to Istanbul SGIA.”

MAHB settled 0.9% or 8 sen lower at RM8.72, valuing the group at RM14.6 billion.