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KLIA East @ Labu

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Template:Future airport

KLIA East @ Labu

LTAKL Timur @ Labu
Summary
OperatorAir Asia, Sime Darby
LocationLabu, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia

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:-

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

AirAsia on its website claims that building a second terminal building opposite the current one, as envision in the KLIA master plan was not possible due to Express Rail Link powers cable height issues.[3]

According to a local business newspaper, AirAsia enjoys incentives such as waiver of all aeronautical charges except Passenger Service Charge, which is borne by the passenger expires in 2007. The incentive was given as a part of convincing AirAsia to move from Subang Airport to Kuala Lumpur International Airport. However, the incentives covers not only KLIA but all airports where AirAsia operated. Incentive covers waivers on landing, parking, aerobridge and check-in counter charges. It expected that AirAsia wants it own an airport to help better manage airport costs.[4]

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. The group questions wheather any cost-benefit analysis has been done on the projects, both in financial and non-financial terms. The move of building the second LCC terminal is expected to cannibalized the operator of the main airport as AirAsia commands a significant traffic on KLIA. [5]

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 previous Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tun Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad waded in against the idea of the new airport at Labu. He explains that the KLIA Masterplan has been designed to cater for future growth, up to 100 million of passenger annually.The former Prime Minister is credited with masterminding the construction of the Kuala Lumpur International Airport Meanwhile, AirAsia projection until 2014 is up to 27 million passenger annually. He argued that KLIA has the expansion capacity to cater for every AirAsia needs, low cost or not.[6] In the respected The Malaysian Insider site, practically all the blog messages from its readers were not in favor of the Labu airport. .

References

  1. ^ 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)
  2. ^ "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)
  3. ^ "KLIA East FAQ". AirAsia. AirAsia. 2009-01-16. Retrieved 2009-01-19.
  4. ^ Leong, Doreen (2009-01-12). "Corporate: Why AirAsia wants its own airport". Retrieved 19 January 2009. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  5. ^ "MSWG questions viability of 2 LCCTs". 2009-01-15. Retrieved 19 January 2009. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  6. ^ "Labu Airport". Chedet.com. Chedet.cc. 2009-01-17. Retrieved 2009-01-19.

Dr.Mahathir Mohammad's Web Blog site

Bernama Report, Jan 9th, 2009

The Malaysian Insider, Jan 8th, 2009

[http://weechookeong.wordpress.com/2009/01/09/campaign-against-klia-east-labu/ Campaign against KLIA East @ Labu ]

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