Malaysia Airports Holdings (MAHB) will launch an initiative to expand and modernize its key airports within the country because it looks to capitalize on the growing tourism boom in Southeast Asia.
MAHB managing director Badlisham Ghazali said Langkawi airport may have an upgraded terminal that can give you the option to handle 4 million passengers a yr, up from the present 1.5 million.
In addition, Kota Bahru, Penang, Kuching and Kota Kinabalu airports will even undergo an expansion and modernization phase.
He added that the airport operator is working with the Malaysian government to explore the potential for establishing a brand recent airport in central Malaysia, north of Kuala Lumpur, in addition to within the eastern state of Sarawak.
There are also plans to expand the KLIA 1 terminal at Kuala Lumpur International Airport by increasing the variety of aircraft contact bridges. This will increase annual passenger capability to 30 million from the present 25 million.
MAHB plans to construct a satellite terminal that can give you the option to handle 10 million passengers. When added to KLIA Terminal 2’s 45 million capability, KLIA will give you the option to handle a complete of 85 million passengers, up from 70 million currently.
Ghazali adds that KLIA has land to expand “over the following 40, 50 years… into 4 or five runways” and that the MAHB airport expansion and modernization plan “goes hand in hand” with Kuala Lumpur’s decision to modernize Malaysia’s airspace management with improved air traffic control towers.
Apart from China and India, Ghazali says MAHB’s next growth markets are countries inside the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
“ASEAN encourages trade, and it is becoming easier to build tourism promotions in each country. This is not only because we are getting closer together as a region, but also because of the growing middle-income population.”
Ghazali says more individuals are traveling inside ASEAN for leisure and business, helped by the rise of low-cost airlines serving traffic from greater China and India.
He adds that MAHB has also been in a position to provide international flights to airports outside Kuala Lumpur and has seen a gradual increase within the variety of flights from origin to destination at three specific airports: Kota Kinabalu, Langkawi and Penang.
The airport operator’s forecast predicted a rise within the variety of international passengers traveling in 2017 of around 6.5%, but within the last six months this number has reached double digits, and MAHB now represents a rise of 9.5% for the complete yr.
Meanwhile, work will begin this yr on a whole overhaul of passenger infrastructure at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) to halt its plummeting position in international rankings, the watchdog’s most senior figure says.
Ghazali said this was needed to make KLIA effective again.
In a study by British consulting firm Skytrax in 2017, KLIA was ranked thirty fourth in comparison with twenty fourth in 2016. “It’s not nearly improving efficiency… a whole modernization is planned,” he said.
Source: FlightGlobal | Times of the Strait
