Budget airlines to move to main terminal in KK next year

KOTA KINABALU: Work on the Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA) is due to be completed by the end of next year, at which time budget air carriers will relocate their operations to the main terminal. Transport Minister Datuk Seri Kong Cho Ha said the only work left as part of the RM1.4bil KKIA upgrade was the extension of the airport runway from 3km to 3.8km as well as resurfacing work. “The resurfacing will take about a year as the contractor has to do three layers and since it’s an operational runway, the work can only be done three to four hours every night. “The progress is only about 40m a day,” Kong said when visiting the site. The airport runway extension was supposed to have been completed by April last year.

He also visited the equipment room of the KKIA air traffic control (ATC) centre which was damaged in a small fire on Dec 26 that resulted in 19 flights being disrupted. Kong said the Transport Ministry had an understanding with budget carrier AirAsia that it, along with other low-cost carriers such as Cebu Pacific now using KKIA’s Terminal 2, would eventually shift to the main terminal. “We have a time frame in mind,” he said and when pressed further, Kong said his ministry was looking at 2011 for AirAsia to relocate to the main terminal.
AirAsia chief executive Datuk Tony Fernandes had said that the airline was fast outgrowing KKIA’s Terminal 2. On the ATC centre, he said his visit was also to assess and discuss with airport officials measures that could be taken to avert a recurrence of the incident.
“We do not want to see this happening again, more so at the peak of the travel season,” Kong added.
-thestar online.