2 May 2013
Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) believes growing seat capacity and new client airlines will provide growth in passenger movements for the group despite talk of a possible slight delay in the opening of the new RM4 billion low-cost terminal, the Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (klia2).
The airport operator recorded a 11.4% year-on-year (YoY) growth to 6.3 million passenger movements in March 2013, while aircraift movement grew 8.8% YoY for the month.
For the first-quarter (1Q) of the year, passenger movement increased by 8.7% YoY as its core clients Malaysia Airlines and AirAsia and other airlines registered higher capacity and passenger growth, MAHB said in an exchange filing on Tuesday.
The group remains optimistic about the days ahead. ?ased on schedule analysis, a mid-teens increase in airlines?seat capacity is foreseen in the next quarter over 2Q12, the highest increase in recent years.
?n view of the strong correlation between capacity offering and actual traffic performance, and current economic trends, we expect an optimistic performance in 2013 with respect to overall passenger traffic growth,?MAHB said.
The 13th general election has encouraged passenger movement since March but more important for the country and aviation and hospitality industry, is the Visit Malaysia 2014 initiatives now underway to attract and encourage domestic and foreign travel.
The conflict in Lahad Datu, Sabah, had a marginal impact on passenger traffic at airports in Sandakan and Lahad Datu, MAHB said.
That said, full service airliners like Air France, Philippine Airlines and Turkish Airlines have started service from KLIA in April and this month after Malindo Air started operations in mid-March.
MAHB said this may be interpreted as a signal that full-service carriers are more confident that travel demand has matured sufficiently for both full-service products and low-cost products to grow side by side in Malaysia.
While growth in passenger movements is strong, it is less so for cargo movement. Cargo movement grew 0.9% YoY in March and 1.7% YoY for the 1Q.
Source: www.freemalaysiatoday.com
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