KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 15 — Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) remains confident on the gradual recovery of the passenger traffic at its airports with another airline starting operations along with the resumption of flights by other airlines.
In a statement today, MAHB said its flagship airport, the KL International Airport has welcomed back Cathay Pacific after a three-year hiatus last month.
Cathy Pacific is offering weekly flights to Hong Kong from Kuala Lumpur and is looking forward to the inaugural flight of Starlux Airlines from Taipei in January 2021.
“This new flight is an addition to its Taipei-Penang route that started early this year. As air travel slowly returns to normalcy, the airport continues to be diligent in the implementation of various safety measures to boost passenger confidence,” it said.
Meanwhile, at the Penang International Airport, Indonesia AirAsia is looking to resume its flight operations from Kuala Namu, effective this month.
With this resumption, AirAsia Indonesia will be the sixth foreign airline to resume operations at Penang.
On top of that, local community airline Firefly will begin operating at Penang as its second hub by introducing new routes from Penang to Kuching and Kota Kinabalu from January 2021 onwards.
“The gradual resumption of airline operations and introduction of new routes continue to provide us with the optimistic outlook of recovery in the aviation sector.
“With the interstate and interdistrict travel ban recently lifted and the upcoming long holiday season, we are expecting passenger movements to improve this month.
“Passengers can travel confidently via our airports with peace of mind as we have continuously implemented various COVID-19 safety measures since the onset of the pandemic,” it said.
As for cargo operations in Malaysia, the new e-fulfilment hub, Cainiao Aeropolis eWTP hub has commenced operations last month, just in time to provide smart supply chain support to the global “11.11 Singles Day” online e-commerce sales by helping facilitate 24-hour delivery within Malaysia and 72-hour delivery to the rest of the world.
“The eWTP hub is a joint venture between Malaysia Airports and Alibaba group’s logistic unit, Cainiao, occupying 2.6 million square feet with 1.1 million square feet of warehouse space,” it said.
The new facility is projected to increase cargo volume by 700,000 metric tonnes, doubling KUL’s current volume to 1.4 million per year by 2029.
It added that the cargo operations in Malaysia continued to show resilience by recording an average of 65,000 metric tonnes a month from January to November this year compared to 78,000 metric tonnes a month in 2019. – BERNAMA