Kuala Lumpur gains 9 new airlines in 2026; 142 destinations now served

Kuala Lumpur (IATA code KUL) is, of course, by far Malaysia’s busiest airport. In 2025, 63.3 million passengers were welcomed, which was the highest volume to date. The traffic achieved before COVID-19 in 2019 was exceeded for the first time.

KUL ended last year as Asia’s 10th-busiest airport. It has jumped one place compared to 2024 and three places compared to 2023. In the few years leading up to the pandemic, the highest position was 12th.

Cirium schedule data shows that new airlines for 2024 included Turkmenistan Airlines, Qingdao Airlines and Loong Air. In 2025, KUL gained British Airways, FitsAir, Hainan Airlines, Juneyao Air and Jiangxi Air. Those joining KUL’s portfolio in 2026 include Aero Dilli, Air Algerie, AirBorneo, Greater Bay, Lufthansa, Riyadh Air, Sky Angkor, Thai VietJet Air and ZIPAIR. However, some airlines have pulled out recently, including SalamAir and Lucky Air in 2025.

The AirAsia Group has 37% of the capacity

Cirium data for the second half of 2026 (July-December) shows that KUL has 20.4 million one-way seats. Capacity is flat year-over-year and up by a modest 1% compared to the same period in 2019.

With 6.2 million one-way seats, down by 8%, AirAsia (IATA code: AK) remains the leading operator. This is the original Malaysian unit of the AirAsia Group and has 31% of KUL’s capacity. When the other AOCs are included, the Group has 37%. In contrast, the nation’s flag carrier, Malaysia Airlines, only has a quarter of the airport’s seats.

The original AirAsia unit has 68 routes, involving 18 countries. Nearly half of its capacity (45%) is deployed domestically. This proportion is unchanged compared to a decade ago. Of course, the Group’s other units operate internationally, although Malaysia’s AirAsia X, whose fleet now consists of the A321XLR and A330-300, does have three domestic routes.

Compared to the second half of 2025, Xiamen Air has entered the top 10 list, thanks to 41% growth. This is because of three new routes: Changsha, Fuzhou, and Nanjing. This growth has contributed to Scoot being pushed out of the table.

The top 10 destinations have a third of KUL’s seats

Cirium shows that KUL has flights to 142 destinations in the examined period. 34 airports in mainland China are served, followed by 17 in Indonesia, 15 in Malaysia and 11 in India. 87% of capacity is within Asia, very distantly trailed by 5% to the Middle East and Australasia, 2% to Europe and the remainder to Africa.

With almost 1.3 million one-way seats, down by 9%, Singapore remains by far the most-served market from KUL. 257-weekly departures are available in August, provided by AirAsia (73), Malaysia Airlines (66), Singapore Airlines (54), Scoot (31), Batik Air Malaysia (28) and Ethiopian Airlines (5).