Kuala Lumpur International Airport Sees 5% Rise in Pax Traffic

February 11, 2004

KLIA Sees 5% Rise in Pax Traffic
The Edge Daily, Malaysia

KL International Airport (KLIA) passenger traffic is
expected to grow by 5% to 18.32 million passengers in
2004 from 17.45 million last year, with a number of
existing or new airlines lining up new and additional
services, said Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB)
managing director Datuk Bashir Ahmad.

“Conservatively, we are expecting 4% or 5% growth both
for KLIA and overall air passenger traffic in
Malaysia,” he said at a media briefing yesterday.

“Malaysia Airlines, Royal Brunei Airways and Air
Mauritius are expected to increase their frequencies
and services, while Lufthansa German Airlines and
China Eastern Airlines will start flying into KLIA
this year,” he said. 

Bashir said that last year KLIA recorded a 6.4% growth
in passenger traffic to 17.45 million, while cargo
volume shot up by 11.2% to 586,195 tonnes and aircraft
movements rose by 9.1% to 139,101.

“KLIA handled 1.84 million passengers last December,
or 208,250 above the previous high in December 2002,”
Bashir said.
MAHB operates 37 airports including five international
gateways, 14 domestic and 18
short-take-off-and-landing (STOL) airfields. It
handled 33.8 million passengers last year.

On the development of new and larger aircraft that can
fly further non-stop, he acknowledged that there was a
risk of airlines bypassing airports in the region.

“That is already happening today and Singapore without
its big home base traffic is in more danger than KLIA.


“Emirates Airlines can fly from Dubai to Perth or
Melbourne non-stop with their 777 Super Ranger. KLIA
is also ready to handle the A380, which can carry 555
passengers compared with 416 passengers for a B747,”
Bashir said.

He said MAHB was currently studying the traffic growth
in view of the planned development of the second phase
of KLIA. 

KLIA has been planned to handle up to 25 million
passengers a year in phase one from 1998 to 2008, 35
million in phase two from 2008 to 2015 and between 45
million and 60 million passengers in phase three from
2015-2020.

Bashir said MAHB would call for tenders for the
development of a new terminal building for the Sultan
Abdul Halim Airport in Alor Star next month. 

He said that under current circumstances there was no
need to build a separate terminal for low-fare
airlines at KLIA, but only when there were 10 to 15
such airlines operating at the airport.

He said MAHB was also looking at new opportunities to
manage other airports overseas. It has an 11% stake in
Hyderabad Airport in India, which is currently under
development.

 Do you have an opinion about this story?
Share it with other readers in our CAA Discussion Forums

http://www.californiaaviation.org/dc/dcboard.php

*****************************************