Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (MAHB) — the operator of managing 39 airports including Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia’s International Airport and Istanbul, Turkey’s Sabiha Gokcen International Airport — has revealed its passenger capacity for December. The airports in the two countries have reported a total of 5.35 million passengers. The airport in Malaysia has a capacity of 3.11 million passengers, while Istanbul handled 2.23 million passengers.
The international passenger movement in Malaysia has skyrocketed by 114%, thanks to the resumption of Umrah travel or Islamic pilgrimage and the Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) program between Malaysia and Singapore, allowing both citizens to travel without quarantine. The domestic traffic in Malaysia also increased by 30% to 2.8 million passengers, compare to November.
In addition, MAHB has seen a 21 percent increase in aircraft movement from November to 40,147. International flights also increased by 15% to 6,582 flights. The traffic figures for December were 41.6% of pre-Covid-19 levels.
In December, Kuala Lumpur International Airport — the gateway to the country — saw a sign of recovery. Myanmar Airways resumed its services from Yangon, Myanmar, to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia last month.
“Looking at the demand generated by the VTL program, as evidenced by the sold-out flights, it is obvious that such programs will be the catalyst for air travel recovery,” Dato Iskandar Mizal Mahmood, the new Managing Director of Malaysia Airports, said.
Malaysia and Singapore have been facing a setback. In response to the Omicron variant, the VTL program is suspended effective from Dec. 23 to Jan. 20.
Langkawi Travel Bubble
However, there is not every program could make a success. Following the success of the domestic Langkawi travel bubble. Malaysia introduced the scheme to international travelers — welcoming foreigners to the tourist hotspot of the country. Due to the Omicron variant, the travel scheme fell short of attracting leisure travelers to visit Langkawi. The number of international travelers arriving in Langkawi, Malaysia since Nov. 15 was only 15% as the pre-covid levels.