KUALA LUMPUR – The Malaysian aviation sector has shown signs of recovery in September and October, registering a 56.6% and 190.2% growth in air passenger traffic respectively, said the Malaysian Aviation Commission (Mavcom) today.
Mavcom published the tenth edition of its industry report, Waypoint and it noted that air passenger traffic in the same months of 2019 stood at 5.3% and 14.9% respectively.
Furthermore, total air passenger traffic for the financial year 2021 is expected to be closer to Mavcom’s best-case scenario forecast of 6.9 million to 7.8 million of air travel passengers.
Mavcom executive chairman Datuk Seri Saripuddin Kasim said that the commission is pleased to note the easing of travel restrictions, travel bubbles, the reopening of international borders in light of Malaysia’s rapid vaccination rollout, as well as the recent Vaccinated Travel Lane to Singapore.
“These initiatives have allowed for tourism activities to restart with early indications pointing towards a positive outlook for Malaysia’s air passenger traffic in 2022.”
Still, Saripuddin said full recovery of the nation’s aviation sector is still far and that players may still face challenges ahead with the rise of fuel and jet fuel process, which will impact airlines’ operational costs.
He said the coronavirus and possible outbreak of the fast-spreading Omicron variant would also affect the aviation sector.
“However, we remain hopeful that the industry will continue to make progress, particularly as the Malaysian government considers reopening mutual borders with several countries,” he said.
Mavcom also forecasted air passenger traffic will increase between 316% and 525% year-on-year (y-o-y), representing between 32.6 million and 49.0 million air travel passengers, marking a 30% to 45% recovery from the pre-pandemic air passenger traffic levels in 2019.
Additionally, airlines are expected to gradually expand seat capacity as pent-up travel demand and accrued savings drive passenger traffic growth in 2022, he said.
The Langkawi domestic travel bubble, which commenced on September 16, saw a significant increase of domestic air passengers in September and October this year by 241% and 261.4% respectively, thanks to the recent easing of border restrictions for international travellers, which is expected to further support the growth in air passenger traffic.
Meanwhile, demand for air cargo remains resilient as Malaysia’s air cargo volume in terms of total freight tonne kilometre (FTK) recorded a robust growth of 19.7% y-o-y in the third quarter of this year. The commission expects air cargo to remain vital to the industry for the remainder of 2021 and in 2022.
For 2022, air cargo traffic is forecasted to grow by between 3.9% and 6.7% y-o-y, which translates into 20.8 billion to 21.6 billion FTK, underpinned by the progress of vaccination programmes, strong growth of e-commerce, electrical and electronics, as well as demand from Malaysia’s main trading partners.
The Waypoint Report is released on a biannual basis and more information can be found on Mavcom’s website. – The Vibes, December 9, 2021
