Senai Airport Pledges Efficient Service to AirAsia

November 12, 2003

Senai Airport Pledges Efficient Service to AirAsia
Business Times Singapore

MALAYSIAN tycoon Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary is pulling out all the stops to
make his Senai Airport in Johor the base for fast-growing budget airline
AirAsia, which is now mulling the possibility of setting up a similar
business in Singapore.

Syed Mokhtar's Senai Airport Terminal Services (Seats) issued a statement
yesterday reaffirming its partnership with Air Asia and projecting a 50
per cent rise in the annual number of passengers using the airport to 1.5
million by the middle of next year. 'Seats has pledged to provide any
airline the kind of efficient ground service that allows it quick
turnaround time and reliable ground support. We will extend the same level
of efficiency to AirAsia,' said Seats director Mohd Sidik Shaik Osman.

In the same statement, AirAsia founder Tony Fernandes said he is impressed
with the plan to transform Senai Airport, 25km north of Singapore. 'We
were keen to expand our wings and when Seats told us of their plans for
Senai Airport, it was obvious this is where we would operate a second hub
(after Kuala Lumpur International Airport),' he said. 'We were given a
chance to review Seats' plans to redevelop this airport and this left us
sufficiently impressed with their vision and ability to deliver.'

Their joint statement came after a BT report this week on the possibility
of AirAsia launching a no-frills business in Singapore following its coup
in tying up with Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's Shin Corp to
jointly run a budget carrier in Thailand. Mr Fernandes told BT his plans
to start a Singapore operation were at 'an embryonic stage'.


Sources said Seats was taken aback by the report as it suggested that
AirAsia may relegate Senai to the back seat should it decide to fly to
Singapore direct. 'AirAsia must not forget its bread and butter. It took
off as a domestic airline,' said a source close to Syed Mokhtar's group.
The source declined to indicate if Seats will grant fresh incentives to
make sure AirAsia stays put at Senai, while Mr Fernandes could not be
reached for clarification yesterday. 'Everything will be free,' the source
quipped.

Syed Mokhtar, who has the blessings of the Malaysian government to
transform Johor into a logistics hub to rival Singapore, is counting on
AirAsia to help get the grand plan up and running. The tycoon is linking
his three infrastructure assets in the southern state of Johor - Senai
Airport, Port of Tanjung Pelepas and Johor Port - to create a multi-modal
transport hub.

To help make the blueprint viable, Seats plans to expand annual capacity
to cater to more than seven million passengers and handle one million
tonnes of air-freight within the next decade. A source said the blueprint
would have to be redrawn should AirAsia opt for Singapore instead of
Senai. Seats and Mr Fernandes have also faced an unexpected stumbling
block in their earlier plan to ferry passengers from Singapore to Senai
with a direct bus link, which has not been given the green light by
Singapore yet.

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