Malaysia Airports is pleased to be raising its profile as it prepares to host Routes Asia in February 2024
Malaysia Airports is looking forward to hosting Routes Asia in late February 2024 as a proof point that the country’s air transport market is beginning to make up the ground lost during the pandemic.
“In February we will showcase tourism and air connectivity for Malaysia and Langkawi and showcase how important a sustainable aviation strategy is for our communities,” said Megat Ardian, Senior General Manager Strategy, Malaysia Airports. He stressed that without good connectivity Langkawi, the picturesque island that will host the Routes gathering, would still be a quiet fishing village.
“Overall, the Malaysian economy is picking up and we are on a good growth path spurred by aviation,” said Ardian. Traffic returned to pre-pandemic levels as the year progressed and will reach 80% of 2019’s high water mark by year-end. “There will be full recovery in 2024,” he added.
At Malaysia Airports’ flagship Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) passenger numbers will hit 60 million in 2023, said Ardian. The country’s flag carrier Malaysia Airlines, which operates from Terminal 1, has restored most of its capacity and network, while low-cost giant AirAsia, which calls Terminal 2 home, is seeing good load factors as it rebuilds its large network.
Carriers such as Turkish Airlines have been boosting service at KLIA, upping its restored daily service to Istanbul to double-daily as traffic surges. Emirates is also up to double-daily on its Dubai service.
“We are also seeing a lot of brand-new airlines at KLIA,” said Ardian. Indonesia’s TransNusa has started a daily service to Jakarta; Oman’s Salam Air has begun serving Muscat; while another Indonesian player, Super Air Jet, is flying a handful of routes to that country.
As Malaysia Airports “re-energises” KLIA with more commercial outlets like the Hard Rock Café and a Jamie Oliver restaurant, plus occasional live bands in partnership with Tourism Malaysia, it has bigger plans for Subang Airport, which was the main hub for the capital before KLIA opened, said Ardian.
The operator is building a new terminal at this ‘city’ airport, doubling its capacity to 3 million passengers next year when it opens. At present, Subang exclusively services turboprop carriers such as Firefly, but the upgraded facility will be able to handle narrowbodies.
There will be a market differentiation between Subang and main hub KLIA. “Subang will cater to the premium market, serving destinations with a flying time of three to three-and-a-half hours’ flight time from Kuala Lumpur,” said Ardian.
Malaysia Airports is seeking to attract short-haul carriers to Subang to grow this airport and fill up the new terminal. “The terminal has the ability to grow up to 8 million passengers in the next three years,” he noted.
A new player eyeing up Subang is SKS Airways, which is planning to begin service from the airport with Embraer E195 regional jets in the first half of 2024 to Tioman and Redang islands.
