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KLIA2



At last, KLIA2 is finally opened to air traffic after lengthy delays. Since the start of the project, there were a lot of controversies surrounding the building the terminal. The terminal was originally planned to be in operation in 2012. With failed inspections and delay construction works, the opening of the terminal was forced to delay. The cost of building the terminal was announced to be at RM800 million which was doubled the cost that was first announced at RM400 million. Recently, the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) questioned the RM100 million cost of of building the 1km rail extension from KLIA to KLIA2.

KLIA2, situated beside the current main terminal is designed to handle 45 million passengers per year. The terminal has 60 departures gates all dedicated to low-cost carriers. Every passengers flying with airlines using the terminal will be able to board the plane using the airbridge. The existing LCCT Terminal was first opened in 2005 and handles more than 22 million passengers which exceeds the 15 million it was designed for. Those old times where you need to board the plane soaking wet when it’s raining is long gone with the new terminal. The days when you enter a terminal that feels like a night market are now the past.

Apart from these controversies leading up to the opening of the new terminal, take a look at the positives of this terminal and the impact on the aviation industry in Malaysia. In 2013 alone, KLIA was ranked 20th World’s busiest airport by passenger traffic. The airport handled 47 million passengers, achieving passenger growth of 19.1% according to Airports Council International which is one of the highest in the world. Even though Malaysia has a high low-cost carrier penetration rate, there’s still plenty room for transit traffic. With neighbors Indonesia, Vietnam still lagging behind in terms of aircraft infrastructures, KLIA-based carriers like Airasia and Malindo Air have plenty of opportunities to establish themselves in the regional low-cost sector given the fact they have plenty of opportunities to expand with the new terminal, a new control tower, and a new third 4km runway. Brand new facilities will allow transit passengers to have a smooth journey connecting their flights.



Airasia decides to move in to the airport a week later after the opening day. Some critics quickly pointed out the decision not to move in on the first day. It’s not a surprising move by Airasia after all. Moving into a new terminal is not the same thing as moving into a new house. By allowing airlines with smaller operations to first test out and use the terminal, it allows the terminal personnel to fully familiarize with the operations of the new terminal. It’s a risky move to just move Airasia’s big operations into the terminal on the very same day. British Airways suffers lots of problems when the airline moved into the new Heathrow Terminal 5 in 2008. Flights were cancelled, luggage were delayed, computer systems broke down as British Airways, the sole user of the terminal faces problems of “staff familiarization”.

The new terminal is expected to handle around 23 million passengers for the first year of operation which is just more than half of the designed 45 million capacity. Low-cost carriers in the region: Airasia, Airasia X, Malindo Air, Lion Air, Tiger Airways, Cebu Pacific will now all operate from the terminal. The opening of KLIA2 has given Kuala Lumpur the edge over regional hubs like Singapore, Bangkok and Jakarta. Singapore’s Changi airport has just begin the construction of a new terminal specially catering low-cost carriers. Both Bangkok and Jakarta have just reopened their old Don Mueang and Halim airport for low-cost traffic after their current main airport struggles to cope with increasing passenger volumes.

The new terminal will definitely establish KLIA as an aviation hub in the Asia-Pacific region. For those who are about to use the airport, just be more patient with any issues and errors. It’s a common scenes for new opening airport terminals. Despite the enormous expansion opportunities of KLIA, more detailed planning needs to be penned out by the Malaysian Airport authorities about the future growth of the airport to avoid scenarios of London and New York today where airlines are facing difficulties in expanding as airports in these cities are slot-constrained.


By,
Zhe Xu
May 8th 2014


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