KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 15 — Passenger movements at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) stood at 821,000 in November 2021, a 623.1 per cent jump from 114,000 in November 2020, according to Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB).

In a bourse filing today, the airport operator said international and domestic passenger movements handled by KLIA soared 92.9 per cent to 145,000 and 1,656.1 per cent to 676,000, respectively, in November 2021.

On passenger movements at Malaysia Airports Sdn Bhd airports (MASB Airports), MAHB said it jumped 638.5 per cent in November 2021 compared with November 2020, with international and domestic passenger movements increasing by 70.2 per cent and 645.8 per cent, respectively.

MASB Airports refers to the 38 Malaysian airports other than KLIA operated by Malaysia Airports Sdn Bhd.

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On Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen International Airport (SGIA), it said passenger movements continued to show steady growth and are heading to seasonal trends like pre-COVID movements.

“Passenger movements continued to record above one to two million passengers this year, registering 2.4 million passenger movements for November 2021, reaching 83.7 per cent of passenger volume in November 2019,” it said.

Overall, the airport operator said it handled 4.7 million passenger movements in November 2021, a jump of 157.9 per cent over November 2020. This was also the highest volume recorded since the beginning of the pandemic.

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“Total passenger movements for November 2021 reached 99.0 per cent from March 2020, when the Movement Control Order (MCO) in Malaysia was first implemented on March 18 and suspension of international flights in Turkey on the last week of March (2020),” it said.

According to MAHB, international and domestic passenger movements recorded 1.2 million and 3.5 million passengers in November 2021, an increase of 128.7 per cent and 169.4 per cent, respectively, over November 2020.

Domestic traffic, it said, shaped by the success of the vaccination rollout and relaxed travel rules for both Malaysia and Turkey, recorded 3.5 million passengers, the highest passenger movements recorded since February 2020.

“Malaysia domestic passenger movements showed remarkable rebound just seven weeks after the interstate travel ban was lifted, recording more than two million passenger movements, the highest volume recorded to date since March 2020, reaching 50.5 per cent of November 2019 traffic,” it said.

On a last 12-month basis, it said the total MAHB network of airports registered a contraction of 38.4 per cent to 33.0 million passengers.

Moving forward, MAHB said it would continue to closely monitor the latest development on the Omicron variant and its potential impact on global air travel as more countries begin to administer vaccine booster shots. — Bernama