Penang airport passenger movement increased

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黄茁原(左2)在记者会上宣布今年首季国际乘客接待量,左起为章瑛、曹观友及杨顺兴。

 

THE Penang International Airport (PIA) total passenger movement (departure and arrival) for first quarter this year has increased, compared with the same period last year.

Citing figures provided by Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (MAHB), Penang Global Tourism (PGT) chief executive officer Ooi Chok Yan said there was an increase of 9.14% as of March this year.

“A sum of 2,017,693 total passenger movement was recorded for the first three months of this year compared with 1,848,789 total passenger movement recorded during the same period last year,” he told a press conference in Komtar today.

He said the total passenger movement for the entire year in 2017 was 7,232,097 and the figure had increased to 7,786,849 last year.

“The total international arrivals (number of passengers came in through international arrivals) from January to March this year was 451,421; compared with 407,050 recorded during the same period last year.

Ooi attributed the increasing number of visitors to Penang to the number of direct flights locally and abroad.

Ooi said many international flights in-and-out of Penang included cities like Doha, Banda Acheh, Jakarta, Hanoi, Phuket, Nanning and Surabaya.

“Early last month, Firefly started its four times weekly flights from Kuantan while AirAsia will fly seven times weekly from Melaka beginning July 1 this year,” he added.

Also present were Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow and state Tourism Development, Heritage, Culture and Arts Committee chairman Yeoh Soon Hin.

Story by Edmund Lee
Pix by Adleena Rahayu Ahmad Radzi
Video by Chan Kok Kuan