Malaysia’s aviation sector recovered 70% to 80% of pre-Covid-19 levels, says Loke

The Star

At a panel discussion during the CAPA Asia Aviation Summit 2023 in Selangor on Thursday (Nov 2), Transport Minister Anthony Loke said the aviation sector in Malaysia had recovered to 70% to 80% compared to its pre-Covid-19 levels with more flights and traffic but it will improve further with the opening up of more flights from China.   WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

Transcript

00:00 Of course, if you've just met the Honorific Loke Tseung Fook,

00:04 who is the Minister of Transport of Malaysia.

00:07 Well, of course, for Malaysia,

00:09 we are seeing very strong growth in the domestic sector.

00:12 I think we have recovered back to the pre-COVID level.

00:16 As I mentioned earlier, overall passenger movement,

00:20 we are in the region of 70 to 80% pre-COVID.

00:26 Our major markets have recovered, for the exception of China.

00:29 I think China is still challenging,

00:32 because of the probably the slower opening up of the Chinese market.

00:37 And in terms of the Chinese tourist arrivals,

00:40 we have not seen to the level back before 2019.

00:45 Before 2019, we have seen the arrival of 3 million Chinese tourists in Malaysia.

00:50 But right now, we are probably in the region of just over 1 million.

00:54 So it's just one quarter of what we saw before COVID.

00:58 So that is a big challenge in terms of

01:00 regaining back to the level of pre-pandemic.

01:04 That's what I think I mentioned earlier.

01:06 That's probably the reason why in terms of international movement,

01:09 we have not seen the growth compared to other regions in Asia Pacific.

01:15 I think the major factor is the Chinese market.

01:19 It's important for us to really scale up and scale up fast and aggressively

01:23 when Singapore actually reopened its border back in 1st April 2022.

01:28 So at that time, Skood was operating below 50% of the pre-COVID capacity,

01:33 around 40%, but happy to share that at this moment in this month,

01:37 we are actually operating close to 95% of pre-COVID capacity.

01:41 The restoration of the capacity back into the market

01:44 has been well received by our customers.

01:47 We have been reporting more than 90% low factor for the past 7, 8 months.

01:51 And this is the trend that we are seeing going forward.

01:54 I think linking to what the Minister has said,

01:57 the belief in the region that travel demand will continue to be robust,

02:02 Skood has actually taken the initiative to lease 9 Embraer E2,

02:09 which will be joining us from March next year.

02:11 I think that will give us a lot more capacity and a lot more options

02:15 to really increase the capacity beyond pre-COVID.

02:18 I think it is for us the aim to go beyond pre-COVID,

02:21 hopefully by the end of this year, if not in the early part of 2024.

02:25 Just to echo what he was saying,

02:28 I think the market in Asia was a bit slow to start.

02:31 I think a lot of the markets opened, I think a year slower than everybody else.

02:36 But I think, you know, in the airlines in Malaysia,

02:38 we try our best to fill the gaps as much as we can.

02:41 But on the good side, our load factor has pretty much come to the pre-COVID levels.

02:48 We are probably going to look at posting about 82% load factor towards year-end.

02:52 But on the good side as well, yields also is on the positive side.

02:55 I think yields now, we are about 84% higher than pre-COVID levels.

03:00 But I think we have to bear in mind that moving to the fourth quarter,

03:04 fuel is a bit on the negative side.

03:07 Currency in the Ringgit versus the US is weakening.

03:10 So we have to make sure that we try to maintain and make sure that we are sustainable.

03:14 But on the good side, I think, you know, the demand is back.

03:18 The only weaknesses we see going in the next six to eight months,

03:22 the only market that we potentially see is China has not really opened up at 100%.

03:27 Every other market I can safely say has fully recovered.

03:31 So once we get more aircrafts in, I think we will be there as well to support that.

03:35 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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