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THE KL International Airport (KLIA)
in Sepang, now in its eighth year of operations, is
becoming increasingly congested and airport operator
Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd has launched plans
for expanding facilities.
The airport has the capacity to handle 25 million passengers
a year, but saw 23.2 million passengers passing through
its doors in 2005. Based on the airlines maintaining
the existing services, it is expected that more than
24.5 million passengers will have used KLIA in 2006.
Increased flight frequencies of several airlines in
addition to eight new international airlines starting
operations from KLIA contributed to the higher passenger
volume in 2005. They comprised Shenzhen Airlines from
China, Thai AirAsia, Thai Sky Airlines, Jet Airways
of India, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), Air
Nepal International, Indonesia Air Asia and Transaero
Airlines from Russia.
Since then, KLIA has continued to attract more airlines
the latest being, Kuwait Airways and Cebu Pacific, which
operated 1st November 2006 and 1st Decembr 2006 respectively.
Four other airlines - Finnair, Etihad Airways, GMG Airlines
and Hainan Airlines - are reportedly planning scheduled
services into KLIA in 2007.
Low-cost carrier AirAsia Bhd has been credited for making
KLIA a more economical and popular airport, providing
passengers with more destinations and cheaper fares.
That, in turn, has attracted more passengers, prompting
some airlines to add flights. More options lure more
passengers.
And with the surge in passengers comes even better news:
planned airport improvements, including an expanded
retail space and an enhanced information technology
infrastructure.
Expansion plans involve building a second satellite
terminal, planned to handle an additional 10 million
passengers with a floor area similar to the existing
satellite building.
The recent air traffic growth at KLIA could also be
traced to the efforts taken up by the Malaysian Government
and Malaysia Airports to attract airlines to fly to
Kuala Lumpur.
In 2002, the Malaysian Government announced that landing
and parking fees for new foreign airlines using KLIA
would be waived for five years. The same concessions
apply to new flights by foreign airlines already using
the airport.
Even as this incentive scheme is due to expire in May
2007 Malaysia Airports’ Managing Director, Dato'
Seri Bashir Ahmad, has stated: “We will continue
to promote the airport and provide incentives (to airlines).”
Today, KLIA is more of a destination hub than a transit
hub.
“About 30 per cent of our passenger traffic is
transit traffic, which means traffic that comes to Kuala
Lumpur just for connection to another destination. But
what matters more is that we must have volume. That
is why in the case of KLIA, it does not matter if the
airline that flies to KLIA is small, it adds volume
and connectivity to the airport,” Bashir said
“When you do a market study, you want to look
at connections as well. There will be passengers who
want to go beyond Kuala Lumpur. So that is why the connectivity
helps to create market demand,” he added.
Bashir explained why he believes that KLIA can become
the region’s premier airport. “We can (do
it), but first of all we must create demand into the
country through tourism and business and use this demand
to provide the initial connectivity. Once we have the
connectivity, we can develop the transit traffic.
“That’s why having a strong home carrier
is important to provide the basic connectivity. If you
look at today’s successful aviation hubs, they
have a very strong home base carrier. That’s why
I always say, “For an airport to be successful,
you must have a successful home base carrier. And for
an airline to be successful, you must have a good and
efficient airport as a base,” he said.
As Malaysia’s national carrier, Malaysia Airlines
(MAS) is one of the world’s best airlines with
good onboard service. This will continue to be the airline’s
strength, as it builds on its experience and with the
arrival of the Airbus 380s in 2008, it will be in the
forefront of aviation technology.
In the 1980s, MAS was the first major government agency
to be privatised. It has since then become a public-listed
company on Bursa Malaysia. MAS now has a fleet of 85
aircraft in its network, flying to over 100 destinations
around the world.
The original of this article was
written by Kang Swee Lee, New Straits Times, Malaysia |
