SEPANG – KL International Airport
(KLIA) and Langkawi International Airport (LGK) are the world’s No.1 airports
for Q2 2021 in the latest global Airport Service Quality (ASQ) survey by
Airports Council International (ACI). Both airports achieved a perfect score of
5.0/5.0 in the industry survey that benchmarks the world’s best airports in
terms of facilities and service standards. KLIA was previously in the 9th spot,
scoring 4.99/5.0 for Q1 in the over 40 million passengers per annum (mppa)
category whereas LGK was in 3rd spot with the score of 4.97/5.00 in the 2-5
mppa category. The global achievement by these two airports is highly
significant and marks the organisation’s commitment in ensuring world-class
passenger experiences.
According to group chief executive officer (Group CEO) of
Malaysia Airports, Dato’ Mohd Shukrie Mohd Salleh, “At KLIA, these encouraging
results are a testament to the company’s efforts in continuously maintaining
exceptional services and implementing safety measures while it prepares for
travel resumption. Major initiatives contributing to the improved performance
include the strict implementation of new travel SOPs that heightened a safe and
secure travel experience and the opening of 64 newly refurbished washrooms for
the continued comfort of passengers. As for LGK, the refreshed and
improved ambience of the terminal resulting from its successful commercial
reset initiative continues to contribute to the overall satisfaction of
passengers passing through the terminal.”
The airport operator is seeing a gradual uptrend in passenger
numbers by recording a 35% increase from the preceding month for overall
traffic growth in July 2021. Last month, the Malaysia Airports group surpassed
the 3 million mark at 3.3 million total passenger movements for its network of
airports for the first time this year with the majority traffic contributed by
its Turkish asset, Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen International Airport (ISG). With the
easing of border restrictions and curfews, ISG saw a 35% increase in its total
passenger movements at 3 million when compared to the preceding month, reaching
89% of its pre-COVID performance. In fact, the airport’s July 2021 domestic
passenger movement performance at 2 million was extremely encouraging as it
exceeded the passenger volume for any month pre-COVID in 2019 with 1.5% growth
over July 2019.
On the local front, Malaysia Airports recorded nearly 40%
increase in total passenger movements at about 260,000 (International: 72,000;
Domestic: 188,000) last month as compared to June 2021 for its network of
airports here.
Despite the continued interstate travel ban, border closure, and
stricter travel restrictions around the region following new outbreak of cases,
the marginal increase is a positive break for Malaysia Airports following the
recent Government of Malaysia’s announcement allowing flexibility for those
fully vaccinated to travel interstate as well as the reopening of domestic
tourism within the same state (for states that have progressed to Phase 2) from
10 August onwards. The airport operator is also looking forward to the pilot
project of Langkawi Island emulating the Phuket Sandbox Model by inoculating
80% of the island’s population in a move to open the island to fully vaccinated
tourists. Apart from that, there is also the possibility of the resumption of
domestic tourism activities across Malaysia in September that will provide the
much-needed stimulus to the airports, airline partners and the tourism
industry.
-Malaysia Airpoprts Holdings Berhad.
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