KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 10): Capacity cuts by Malaysia Airlines (MAS) contributed to a 2.7% drop in passenger traffic at the 39 airports managed by Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) in the country, in November 2015.
In a filing with Bursa Malaysia today, MAHB said passenger numbers fell to 6.82 million in November 2015, from 7.01 million in November 2014.
International traffic recorded 3.18 million passengers in November 2015, a 1.2% decrease from 3.22 million in November 2014; while domestic traffic was down 3.9% to 3.64 million passengers, from 3.78 million a year ago.
The airport operator also saw 13.7% fewer passengers passing through the KL International Airport's main terminal in Sepang (KLIA-Main) in November 2015, at 1.67 million, compared with 1.93 million in November 2014. However, this was offset by an 11% increase in passenger numbers at klia2 to 2.31 million, from 2.08 million a year ago.
"November traffic was negatively affected by routes and frequencies cuts by MAS, which is undergoing restructuring. This resulted in a double digit percentage year-on-year decline in MAS passenger carriage," said MAHB in the filing.
"This is a trend now, that has occurred more than once, at the onset of each major restructuring initiative over the last decade now.
"As per previous instances, it historically takes at least a month or more, before competing airlines are able to respond fully and insert new (and competing) capacity, to fully (or partially) absorb the withdrawn capacity by MAS," the airport operator added.
MAHB noted while there were significant improvements in the carriage by other airlines in November 2015, it was not enough to offset the numbers lost by the national carrier.
It pointed to AirAsia Bhd’s traffic that improved by close to double-digits in November 2015; as well as Malindo Air’s, which grew by more than 20%.
"Many other airlines recorded encouraging similar growth, including China Southern, Eva Airways, Vietnam Airlines and Qatar Airways. A notable few that grew by over 30% deserving mention were Tiger Airways, Turkish Airlines and Xiamen Airlines," said MAHB.
Total aircraft movements at all airports in the country for November 2015 fell 5.7% to 65,389, from 69,337 in November 2014, due to a reduction of international and domestic movements by 3.2% and 7.1% respectively.
Meanwhile, passenger movements at Istanbul SGIA airport grew at an impressive 21.3% to 2.24 million in November 2015, from 1.84 million in November 2014. Overall, aircraft movements increased by 18.4% year-on-year.
Between January and November 2015, there was a marginal increase of 0.7% in the number of passengers handled by MAHB at its 39 airports in the country to 75.61 million, from 75.06 million in the same period last year.
MAHB handled 0.3% less international passengers during the period to 36.07 million, compared with 36.16 million a year ago; while domestic traffic grew 1.6% to 39.54 million, from 38.9 million in the January-November 2015 period.
KLIA-Main's year-to-date passenger traffic fell 8.8% to 20.49 million, from 22.48 million. At klia2, however, passenger traffic for the first 11 months of this year rose 9.3% to 23.6 million, from 21.6 million a year ago.
Total aircraft movements grew by 3.8% to 744,940, from 717,906.
MAHB shares closed down 5 sen or 0.91% at RM5.43 today, bringing it to a market capitalisation of RM9 billion.
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