Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) will soon be seeing an upgrading of its facilities, starting with the replacement of the baggage handling system (BHS) and aerotrains.

According to an announcement by the Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) back in May 2019, the asset replacement exercise will take place over the next three years. It will cost about RM500 million to RM600 million to accomplish.

“The board of directors of MAHB has approved the BHS replacement exercise, and work is in progress to appoint consultants for the design and supply of the system. The replacement of the aerotrains is also in the final planning stage,” said the acting group chief executive officer of MAHB, Datuk Mohd Shukrie Mohd Salleh.

Aside from replacing such assets, KLIA is also likely to see expansion plans in the near future so as to encourage further growth. This comes as part of MAHB’s ongoing efforts to expand its airports that are reaching their capacities.

“We are currently working closely with the government to development to develop a new masterplan for KLIA and other international and domestic airports under our operating agreements (OAs),” said Shukrie.

Shukrie further added that KLIA has a combined capacity of 75 million passengers per year, and the current traffic is only 62 million. However, the airport would still benefit from an expansion that features optimisation and technology enhancements.

Among some of the new technologies to have been recently introduced at KLIA includes Malaysia Airlines’ trial run of the Single Token system, a security measure that utilises facial recognition.

The upgrade is slated to go on even though the government is still reviewing MAHB’s regulated asset base (RAB) framework. The RAB framework is essentially a funding model that locks the development and maintenance expenditure for MAHB at RM4 billion from 2020 to 2022. It was originally scheduled to start on 1 January 2020, but was withdrawn after former Transport Minister Anthony Loke decided to look for alternative funding models for airport developments.

(Source: The Edge Markets)

• TAGS:
• Anthony Loke
• Datuk Mohd Shukrie Mohd Salleh
• KLIA
• Kuala Lumpur International Airport
• MAHB
• Malaysia Airlines
• Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd
• MAS
• RAB Framework
• Regulated Asset Base Framework
• Single Token System