MAHB released its airport passenger traffic movement figures for January 2024 which remained buoyant across the network reaching 90.8% of 2019 January levels recording 10.1million total passenger movements, and increase by a double-digit growth of 11.4% over January 2023
On a twelve-month basis, the MAHB network of airports grew by 36.6% over the same corresponding period, registering 120.5million passenger movements. International passenger movements recorded new highs and exceeded pre-pandemic levels at 2% for the first time recording 5.5million passengers. January 2024 domestic passenger movements recorded 4.6million passenger movements reaching 80.0% of January 2019 levels, indicating a strong recovery in the international sector.
The passenger movements of airports handled by Malaysia Airports grew by 10.7% to 6.9 million compared to January 2023, and reached 83% of 2019 levels. International sector passenger movements remain steadfast, recording the second highest traffic at 3.8million passengers after December 2023 peak, and recording the highest traffic recovery rate at 86.0% over January 2019 since March 2020.
The strong traffic growth was partly driven by the visa-free entry to Malaysia up to 30 days and the 15-day visa free policy for Malaysians to China effective from 1 December 2023, additional 25 weekly flight frequencies from new airlines and services and the extension of travelling season to early January. Air Macau commenced operations to Macau with 4 flights per week from 10th January 2024 and China Eastern Airlines expanded flights from Beijing Daxing with 4 flights per week commencing on 31st January 2024 respectively from Kuala Lumpur International Airport. In addition, Firefly introduced a charter flight from Tawau to Nanjing with 3 flights per week from 23 January 2024. Etihad Airways increased frequency from daily to twice per day from 15 January 2024.
Domestic passenger movements were equally resilient, recording 3.1million passengers, reaching 79.6% of January 2019 levels as most of the local airlines shifted operations from domestic to international sector with a restricted number of aircraft. The average load factor for the domestic sector.
Istanbul SGIA recorded 3.2million total passenger movements, exceeding 2019 January passenger movements at 14.2%. International passenger movements continued to show resilience exceeding 2019 levels since 2023 and grew by 18.3% over January 2023. Domestic passenger movements were equally solid, recording 6.9% growth over January 2023 at 1.5million passengers.
