MAHB eyes over 7% growth in passengers

SEPANG: Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) is eyeing more than 7% growth for passenger movement at the KL International Airport (KLIA), inclusive of the low-cost carrier terminal, this year to 43 million from 39.8 million last year.

MAHB senior general manager of operations Datuk Azmi Murad said that for the first six months of the year, KLIA had seen a 9% growth in passenger movement to 21 million passengers.

“We are on track to achieve the targeted 43 million passengers for KLIA by the end of the year, and it could be higher,” he said.

He said MAHB was targeting to welcome two new airlines to KLIA before end-2013, which would aid passenger growth at the airport.

“We will wait for them (airline companies) to make the announcement. As of now, they have already confirmed that they are coming,” he told reporters on the sidelines of KLIA’s 15th anniversary celebration yesterday.

In the first half of 2013, KLIA had welcomed five new airlines – Thai Smile, Malindo Air, Air France, Turkish Airlines andPhilippine Airlines.

For the first five months of 2013, KLIA registered a total of 18.2 million passengers.

Azmi said that besides the entry of these new airlines, the increase in passenger movement would also be supported by the increase in flight frequencies by the airlines that were currently operating at the airport.

He noted that KLIA had been experiencing robust growth in passenger movement over the years, attributable to higher flight frequencies, commencement of new routes by partners and the success of MAHB’s airline incentive programmes.

“In 1998, we only had 14 million passengers, and now we are recording 39.8 million passengers as indicated by last year’s figure,” he said. On another note, Azmi expects KLIA2 to commence operations by May 2, 2014.

-thestar online.