KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) saw passenger traffic at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) rise 16.7% to 2.61 million in the month of October, from 2.24 million a year ago.

Based on MAHB's filing to Bursa Malaysia today, there were 18.8% or 280,000 more international passengers at KLIA compared to a year earlier.

There were 12.6% or 95,000 more domestic travellers at the airport during the month under review.

Meanwhile, MAHB's other airports registered a 14.3% increase in passenger volume to 1.87 million.

Overall, traffic at all MAHB's airports grew by 15.7% to 4.48 million passengers in the month of October.

Based on its latest data, the airport operator is still on track to meet it projected passenger growth of between 3% and 4% from 47.44 million last year. MAHB also registered a 4.5% improvement in cargo movements at all its airports in the 10th month of the year. For the third quarter of the year, MAHB posted a 11.2% year-on-year growth in passenger traffic to 13.21 million. However, it continues to record a decline in cargo movement, down 9.8% to 212.81 million kg.

The improvement in passenger volume shows that a recovery is under way for the aviation industry, which was hit badly by the global financial meltdown and the outbreak of H1N1. The International Air Transport Association's (IATA) latest data show that load factors for passenger and cargo have returned to pre-crisis levels of 77.1% and 50.8%, respectively.

However, it said the improvements were "misleading" as the growth in volume was at the expense of passenger yields, which was key to airlines' profitability.