KLIA East @ Labu

KLIA East @ Labu

LTAKL Timur @ Labu
KLIA East @ Labu; LTAKL Timur @ Labu
	IATA: none; ICAO: none;
Summary
Operator	Air Asia, Sime Darby
Location	Labu, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia

Template:Future airport

KLIA East @ Labu or simply KLIA-East is a planned future airport. The airport will be located at Labu, which is 8.6 kilometres away from Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA). It is proposed to replace the low cost carrier terminal (LCCT) in KLIA. By road, the distance from KL’s Golden Triangle to KLIA East is 50km, compared with a distance of 78km to KLIA.^[1] The construction of the new airport, on a 2,800ha area at the state’s central corridor in Labu, would be financed by the private sector. The two parties who have agreed to it are AirAsia Group and Sime Darby who owns the land. It had been planned to start construction on January 2009 and will open 2011. All airlines at the present LCCT will move here.

The KLIA East @ Labu will be connected with KLIA Main Terminal by:-

A proposed 7km branch road to link KLIA East @ Labu to KLIA and the North-South Expressway.

A proposed 7km ERL link from KLIA to KLIA East.

A bus hub at KLIA East.

A 3km KTM Komuter railway line also has been proposed from the railway station in Labu to KLIA East.

All the costs for building the airport, road and rail links will be privately financed.

Funding

The funding for the building of the airport is reported to based on private finance initiative (PFI). Funds is expected to be provided by Sime Darby and AirAsia. However, critics questions the validity of the claim as some aspect of the airport operations such as Customs, Immigration and Quarantine facility may need to be borne by the government. The same argument also goes for other infrastructure such as building new KTM or ERL tracks to the airport.^[2]

Controversies

Arguments for building the airport

AirAsia has launch a cyber-campaign to promte the building and use of the airport. The company's cheif executive office, Tony Fernandes has dubbed the airport as the Rakyat's Terminal (People's Terminal).

AirAsia on its website has list down several justification on its need to build a new airport for its own purpose. Among them are:-

Passenger capacity - Although the current LCC Terminal in KLIA is currently undergoing construction to enable the terminal to handle 15 million passenger a year, AirAsia expect that the terminal will only hold the passenger growth for only one year. The company expects to handle 25 million passenger through the terminal on 2013 which a short fall of over 10 million passenger
Runaway capacity - AirAsia claims that KLIA LCC terminal does not have the capacity to cope up with peak hour aircraft movements. They are expecting to have over 125 Airbus A320 and 25 widebody Airbus by 2013.
Connectivity - AirAsia claims that there are poor connectivity on the terminal
Airport facility - AirAsia claims that waiting time for taxiway has increased due to huge airport layout. They also claimed that the number of gates needed for their operations in the future are insufficient.

AirAsia has also list down the justification of choosing the airport. Among them are:-

Location - The new location is cost efficient, good connectivity to highways and railway lines, and a readily availble land. The land is owned by Sime Darby. AirAsia also claimed that the land proposed by the airport operator, Malaysia Airport Holdings Berhad is unsuitable due to Express Rail Link height and power issues. The land is also has poor soil quality making it more expansive and time costing to develop. AirAsia claims that distance between both airport runaways exceed international standard of 2 km.
Access - AirAsia claims that the new terminal has seamless connectivy via road and rail.
Passenger Capacity - According the AirAsia, the phase 1 of the airport will able to handle 30 million passenger a year, and phase 2 will able to handle 50 million per year.

Argument against building the airport

The International Air Travel Association mentioned that having a single airport is the prefered way to make Kuala Lumpur an aviation hub of choice. The association also mention that having two airport will mean duplication of services such as fire and rescue, air traffic control, immigration and customs, which in turn raise the cost of air travel. Finally, the association cite potential problem in managing air traffic as the airport are too close together.

The Minority Shareholders Watchdog group has questions the need for two LCC terminal within 10km of each other. They mention on utilization of resources in line with Malaysia's National Airport Masterplan.

Aseambankers expressed concern that the proposed new airport could also split Kuala Lumpur as a destination into separate airports, especially when passenger movements currently only total 25 million per annum.

This issue has apparently split political circles as well as Malaysian society. Even the past Prime Minister of Malaysia, Datuk Dr. Mahathir Mohd. waded in not in favor of the new airport at Labu. He expressed his views in his own web blog site.

References

^ Wong Chun Wai (2009-01-02). "KLIA East@Labu". The Star. Retrieved 2009-01-12. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
^ "Sime Darby gets govt nod for Labu LCCT plan". The Star. 2009-01-05. Retrieved 2009-01-13. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)