SHAH ALAM (May 2): Subang Airport, officially known as Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport, will likely be able to handle jet aircraft by the third quarter this year, according to Transport Minister Anthony Loke.
“We are doing some renovation right now, and there are some adjustments in terms of the maintenance of the terminal that has undertaken” by Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB), Loke said. “That is just for the initial phase, for the first three years.”
Loke was speaking to reporters following the opening of ExecuJet MRO Services Malaysia’s new purpose-built maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility at Subang Airport.
In the medium term, the plan is to build a new terminal within Subang Airport to replace the Skypark terminal, he said.
WATCH: Subang Airport’s jet ops likely to start in 3Q
In the meantime, Loke said MAHB, which manages most of the airports in Malaysia, will continue to attract new investment into Subang Airport vicinity to grow the domestic aviation industry.
MAHB is building facilities and may also provide the land for investors, he continued, and it is up to the company to either build the facilities and the hangar or provide the land for lease for the new investment.
“We are taking a very pragmatic approach, certain requirements, of course, yes, is to protect our local industry, our local companies,” he stressed. “But we know in the aerospace industry, we need the foreign investment.”
Malaysia to also focus on MRO activities
ExecuJet MRO Services Malaysia’s new 149,500 sq ft facility, officiated by Loke earlier, sits on land provided by MAHB on a 45-year lease, Loke noted.
“We want to show to the foreign investors that, as far as Malaysia is concerned, we always look for long-term relationships,” he said. “We want investments to come in, to operate here on a long-term basis, because we want to have a long-term relationship.”
Loke said MRO is one of the focuses under the Subang Airport Regeneration Plan, on top of building a city terminal that doubles the airport’s current capacity of passenger handling from 1.5 million to three million passengers annually.
The key component and the focus given has been to turn Subang Airport into a jet operations terminal “but more than that is the MRO, because every aircraft needs MRO,” he said.
Business aviation is also growing in importance in Asia as more billionaires emerge from this region and Malaysia is eyeing business and private jets in Malaysia as well as from Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, even Hong Kong, Loke flagged.
“They can stop in here for their MRO and this is something which we are working on, we think we have a competitive advantage,” he added.
WATCH: Skypark Link service to be resumed