According to the airport operator, all these passengers went through stringent health and safety screening measures as determined by the health ministry.

MAHB issued the statement following claims on various chat platforms and media reports correlating the presence of multiple Covid-19 variants in this country to the high passenger traffic movements in April.

MAHB said there were 102,000 international passengers in March, 73,000 in February and 96,000 in January.

These international passengers included foreigners returning to their own country, students flying out to tertiary institutions abroad, permanent residents who are spouses or family members of Malaysian citizens, diplomats, and those who had received permission from Malaysia’s Immigration Department to perform official or business travel, it said.

“All airports in Malaysia have remained open from the start of the movement control order (MCO) to facilitate rescue and repatriation efforts, as well as cargo flights in and out of the country,” MAHB said in its statement.

MAHB said the total passenger traffic movements of 1.96 million recorded in April was for the group’s entire network of airports in Malaysia and its fully-owned Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen International Airport (ISG) in Turkey.

In its breakdown, it said there were 523,000 domestic and 107,000 international passengers at Malaysian airports.

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