MAB Ready to Invest RM10 Million in Upgrading Kota Kinabalu Airport

14th Oct 2016

Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA) Terminal 1 should get much better soon as Malaysia Airlines Berhad (MAB) prepares to invest RM10 million in upgrading it.

MAB is expected to design a two-boarding bridge which will allow more planes to use KKIA and on Thursday, Badlisham Ghazali, Managing Director of the Malaysian national carrier said MAB would be setting up inline screening of incoming passengers. This will significantly decrease passenger processing time.

Also, MAB will configure the immigration counters, allowing better flow of both incoming and outgoing travellers.

Finally, Mr Ghazali also said MAB will expand the remote parking bays.

He said:

We are preparing to add 11 more bays.

MAB Managing Director said the entire project would be ready by 2017.

Malaysia Airlines also hoped to expand the KKIA Terminal 1 as part of its mid-term plan, but according to the company, this will probably happen in about 4-5 years.

Kota Kinabalu Registered International 1.4 Million Passengers this Year

So far in 2016, Kota Kinabalu International Airport registered 1.4 passengers, which was a 29 per cent increase compared to 1.1 million in the same period in 2015.

Last month alone, the airport’s international passenger growth climbed up to 46 per cent.

This was mainly thanks to a strong performance by several airlines, especially AirAsia, Jin Air (South Korea) and 16 more carriers operating out of Kota Kinabalu.

KKIA handles 180 flights per day on average, or about 18,000 passengers per day.

In addition, according to the Sabah Tourism Board, the total number of tourists visiting the province increased to 1.62 million for the first six month of the 2016 (January-June). That’s 3.7 per cent year-on-year (YoY) and includes both domestic and international visitors.

Ghazali Meeting with Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister

Earlier, Mr Ghazali met with the Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Panglima Masidi Manjun. The two discussed the KKIA upgrade and MAB Managing Director also took the opportunity to inform the Minister about the growth in tourist arrivals at KKIA in September.

Mr Masidi stated that the ministry worked well with Malaysia Airlines and asked the carrier to address any issues connected to KKIA.