KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 27 — Malaysia’s international flight capacity is back to 89 per cent of its pre-pandemic levels, according to Aviation Week.

The aerospace and aviation website says that Malaysia’s international market capacity was also 38 per cent higher year-on-year during the first quarter (Q1) of 2024.

"The reopening of China has been a major driver of international capacity. OAG Schedules Analyser data shows, with the number of available departure seats to mainland China from Malaysia surging to almost 770,000 during the first three months of the year, up from 124,000 in Q1 2023,” it said in a report on Malaysia.

Other international markets like Hong Kong and Indonesia have recovered well over the past 12 months, while service to Thailand is up 19 per cent year-on-year, India is up 18.8 per cent, Australia up 15.9 per cent and Vietnam is up 17.5 per cent.

Malaysia expects to welcome 27.3 million international tourists in 2024, up from 20 million in 2023 when the country exceeded its previous target for the year by five per cent

Kuala Lumpur International Airport, ranked as the most connected airport in Asia-Pacific by OAG, accounts for about 58 percent of capacity from and within Malaysia during Q1 2024. New routes launched or announced in recent weeks include Batik Air’s flights to Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen and AirAsia’s services to Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Thiruvananthapuram and Visakhapatnam in India.

Domestically, capacity in Malaysia’s competitive market is up by approximately 1 per cent year-on-year and back to about 77 per cent of pre-pandemic levels. The increase came despite budget carrier MYAirline suspending operations last October.

MYAirline had accounted for about seven per cent of the market.

AirAsia is the dominant carrier with 5,492,782 passengers in the first quarter followed by Malaysia Airlines with 3,372,068, Batik Air with 981,129, Firefly with 974,673 and AirAsia X with 569,737.

The top five largest international markets in the first quarter are Indonesia with 1,514,139 visitors, followed by Singapore with 1,121,572, China with 768,168, Thailand with 698,052 and India with 438,431.

Most international departures in the first quarter of the year were to South East Asia with 3,986,306 followed by North East Asia at 1,714,247, South Asia at 771,322, the Middle East at 606,503, Southwest Pacific at 363,374 and Western Europe at 139,309, Central Asia at 16,532 and Eastern Africa at 6604. All are an increase from the same period in the previous year.

The top five international routes were Kuala Lumpur to Singapore with 1,222,299 passengers, followed by Jakarta to Kuala Lumpur with 905,054, Penang to Singapore with 517,112, Bali to Kuala Lumpur with 500,428, and Jeddah to Kuala Lumpur at 401,714.

Kuala Lumpur was the largest hub with 8,336,322 departure seats followed by Penang with 1,225,575, Kota Kinabalu with 1,142,300, Kuching with 798,012 and Johor Baru with 481,251.

Domestically, the most popular route was Kota Kinabalu to Kuala Lumpur with 696,577 passengers, Kuching to Kuala Lumpur with 603,560, Kuala Lumpur to Penang with 540,443, Kuala Lumpur to Langkawi with 495,731 and Kota Baru to Kuala Lumpur with 258,652.