MAHB network of airports recorded close to 10 million passenger movements in May 2023 progressing well towards the pre-pandemic level driven by strong traffic recovery from both Malaysia and Turkey operations and surpassing the December 2022 peak of 9.5 million.
The airport operator also saw both the international and domestic sectors contributing to the overall May 2023 growth, recording the highest volume since March 2020 at 4.6 million and 5.4 million passenger movements respectively.
Correspondingly, airports in Malaysia fared well registering 6.8 million total passenger movements and exceeded more than 80% traffic recovery for the first time at 86.2% against May 2019 passenger movements. International passenger movements registered close to 3 million passengers, with four of the international airports namely, Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), Penang International Airport, Kota Kinabalu International Airport, and Langkawi International Airport registered new highs respectively since March 2020, partly driven by increased movements to Indonesia, South Korea, and China.
Domestic passenger movements in May 2023 were the highest for the year at 3.8 million passengers, driven by the Raya festive season that continued to early May and coincided with the 2-week school holiday, several public holidays, and Langkawi International Maritime & Aerospace Exhibition. In addition, there was an increase in Haj pilgrim movements from MASB airports to KLIA in correspondence with the increase in Haj pilgrim’s quota to 31,600 this year.
Istanbul SGIA passenger movements exceeded May 2019 levels with a growth of 13.4% partly driven by the international sector. It is a significant milestone for the Istanbul SGIA as the international passenger movements recorded the highest passenger movements at 1.58 million exceeding the peak movements recorded during the summer season in 2022. Anadolu Jet continued to expand connectivity with daily service to Rome, and Royal Air Maroc resumed flights from Casablanca to Istanbul SGIA with four weekly frequencies
