PERTH (March 26): Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB), which was taken private earlier this year, is reviewing the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) Master Plan and will prioritise rebuilding older assets to eke out capacity for now. Brick-and-mortar expansion will be done in phases.

Khazanah Nasional Bhd-led consortium Gateway Development Alliance bought out MAHB's public shareholders and delisted the company to allow for faster long-term strategic decision making and improved airport infrastructure, passenger services, and airline connectivity. 

The KLIA Master Plan rolled out in 2020, when Covid-19 hit, included phased upgrades for Terminal 1 (T1) and Terminal 2 (T2). T1’s capacity was to increase from 30 million to 59 million passengers annually while T2’s capacity was to go from 45 million to 67 million annually. It also included the development of a fourth runway and a new T3 in the future.

“We have revised those projections and so we’re reviewing the master plan. The question now is not ‘if’ we will build it but ‘when’. It will come, but now we are doing two things. Firstly, we are seeing what the optimal future of each terminal is,” MAHB senior general manager of strategy Megat Ardian Wira Mohd Aminuddin said at a panel discussion titled Airport Development and Sustainable Designs: Shaping Airports for Future Demand and Environmental Consideration at Routes Asia 2025 today.

“With KLIA, we are taking the optimisation stance for now. We are looking at the best way to compress the time for each passenger going through different touchpoints, and when we do that, we unlock capacity,” he said when asked about KLIA’s terminal expansion plans.

Megat added that the airport operator is looking at each terminal having its own master plan, regardless of its size.

MAHB operates 39 airports, where five are international airports, 17 are domestic airports and 17 are short take-off and landing.

“We pushed back the brick-and-mortar expansion further down the line. It’s challenging. But the main thing we have to do now is firstly rebuild the older assets that we have. That’s a quick win for us,” he said.

He added that replacing escalators, elevators, air-conditioning units and even changing the ground vehicle equipment to electric vehicles would help the airport operator in being more energy efficient.

When asked how far down the line optimisation efforts can help before the physical terminal expansion is undertaken, Megat said that it would depend on MAHB’s growth strategy.

"Aviation strategy has to come in from the airlines and that's where conferences like this are great for us to see where the aircraft are coming in from and when they're coming in. There's always competition between hubs to get that aircraft in," he said.

Megat also told the crowd that MAHB is taking a decarbonisation exercise in all of its airports, where individual airports will have their own carbon targets and focus areas, making the exercise more targeted.

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