Brent Hannon/KUALA LUMPUR
Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) at Sepang, 70km (45 miles) south of the Malaysian capital, rushed to its target completion date of 1 January with two runways, a main terminal and a satellite terminal largely finished, says Ambrin Buang, senior general manager of Government-owned K L International Airport Berhad, which is building the airport. The Government wants to start commercial operations by 1 April, but Malaysia Airlines says that 1 June is a more likely opening date.
KLIA will open with the two parallel runways and the terminals. It will have an annual capacity of 25 million passengers, peaking at 7,130 passengers per hour on opening day. Each runway is 4,000m (13,000ft) long and 60m wide, with a separation of 2,535m. The taxiways are 30m wide, and the air-traffic-control tower is 130m high, among the world's tallest.
The main terminal covers an area of 241,000m2 (2,600,000ft2), while the contact pier covers 95,000m2 and the satellite terminal an additional 143,000m2. The main terminal has six check-in islands, with room for 216 check-in counters. It has 69 immigration counters, 61 emigration counters, 16 transfer counters, and 26 customs counters. On opening day, the airport will have 80 contact, remote and multi-aircraft ramp stands.
The contact pier is attached to the main terminal building, and will serve domestic flights and Singapore flights. All other flights will use the satellite. An automated rail transit, capable of moving 3,000 passengers an hour, links the main terminal and contact pier with the satellite, a 3min trip. The automated rail transit is finished, says Buang.
The existing one-runway Subang International Airport will remain open for general aviation, military flights, and pilgrimages to Mecca, but all commercial flights will be transferred to KLIA.
ROOM FOR EXPANSION
The 10,000Ha (24,700acre) KLIA site can be expanded as demand requires, with room for five runways and two main terminal buildings. "We're looking ahead for 90 to 100 years," says Buang. The two-runway layout has room for four satellite terminals, and has a capacity of 60 million passengers a year. Additional satellite terminals will be identical to the existing cross-shaped satellite terminal building.
KLIA literature says that the trip from downtown Kuala Lumpur to KLIA will take 45min by road, and 30min by rail. A new six-lane toll expressway from Kuala Lumpur to the new airport is finished - it is one of two main highways connecting KLIA to the city. Rapidly worsening congestion in Kuala Lumpur, and in the proposed high-technology corridor between Kuala Lumpur and KLIA, could stretch the trip to around 2h, says a Malaysia Airlines employee.
A rail link from downtown Kuala Lumpur to KLIA will not be complete until 2000, at the earliest. "Demand for the train is not so immediate," says Buang. "There are plenty of private vehicles, buses and taxis. We believe, with the two freeways, it will not be a problem."
KLIA will have lower landing fees than any gateway airport in Asia, says Dato Wan Malek, managing director of Malaysia Airlines. Wan Malek says that the Government has assured him that airport fees at KLIA will be identical to those at Subang International Airport for at least one to two years after KLIA opens. Fees at Subang Airport are the lowest in the Asia Pacific. "We are at the bottom," says Wan Malek.
The current airport charge at Subang Airport is less than $2,000 for a 418-seat Boeing 747-400, with a 4h turnaround and a load factor of 66.8%. Kansai Airport has the highest charges, at more than $10,000, followed closely by Tokyo and Osaka. In the middle are Amsterdam, Beijing, London Heathrow, Shanghai, Sydney and Taipei, all in the neighbourhood of $5,000.
Singapore's Changi Airport is relatively low in cost at about $3,000, but is more expensive that KLIA. Changi Airport and KLIA will compete for stopover traffic on the busy air corridor which connects Australia and New Zealand with Europe and the Middle East. "We have a rivalry with every airport," says Buang. A senior Malaysia Airlines official says that Changi Airport is the focus of competition.
The airport should get a boost from Malaysia's relatively unrestricted aviation policy. While Malaysia is not as open as Brunei, Singapore, or Taiwan, it is more liberal than many of its neighbours, including the Philippines and Thailand.
PROJECT FINANCE
The total cost of KLIA, including road and rail links to Kuala Lumpur, is about $5 billion. The Government of Malaysia paid for the land, runways and taxiways, aprons, control tower, terminal, and related buildings, at a cost of 9.5 billion ringgit (about $3.1 billion, depending on the exchange rate). Other services are privatised: fuelling, ground handling, maintenance, air cargo, catering and a hotel. Total private investment is 2 billion ringgit. The rail link will cost another 2 billion ringgit, while the already completed new highway cost 1 billion ringgit.
Malaysia Airlines and Kuala Lumpur Airport Services Berhad (KLAS) will operate most of the privatised aspects of the airport. KLAS is owned by Hicom, one of Malaysia's most powerful corporations, which has a hand in Proton cars and Air Asia, a new Malaysian airline.
Malaysia Airlines and KLAS will handle catering, ground handling and cargo. Malaysia Airlines is building a cargo centre which can support an initial capacity of 650,000t a year, with room to expand capacity to 1 million tonnes, as demand requires. KLAS is building an air-cargo site capable of handling an initial 350,000t a year.
The Malaysia Airlines cargo centre, MASkargo, is a fully automated, 143Ha, two-level cargo terminal, with 92,000m2 of processing area. If necessary, Malaysia Airlines has room to build additional space to handle 3 million tonnes of cargo a year.
Malaysia Airlines' ground-support services cover 89Ha. Besides the cargo space, it has an 11Ha catering operation, and a 12Ha engineering plant. In its first phase, the catering operation can prepare 35,000 meals a day. The airline will continue to perform heavy maintenance at Subang Airport. Other privatised support services include fuelling, short- and long-term car parks, hotels, and airline-operations buildings. Concessions for duty-free shops and commercial areas have yet to be awarded. Pan Pacific will manage a 450-room hotel adjacent to the main terminal building.
GOLF AND MOTOR RACING
KLIA will be managed by Malaysia Airports Berhad, which will take over the airport upon completion. The new airport has allocated space for four hotels, a golf course, a theme park, and even a Formula One race track, says Buang.
Officials emphasise that KLIA is not a replacement airport: it is a state-of-the-art site boasting the latest air-traffic technology and landing aids. It will be equipped with a computer system called the Total Airport Management System, which integrates most of the airport's electronic information, including gate allocation, passenger check-in, baggage handling and air-traffic management.
There is widespread consensus that Kuala Lumpur needs a new airport. "We get complaints every day [about Subang Airport]," says Wan Malek, managing director of Malaysia Airlines. Aircraft parking and passenger clearance are the most common sources of irritation.
Subang Airport, just west of Kuala Lumpur, serves 17 million passengers a year, and passenger traffic has grown by 16% a year for the last five years. Subang reached capacity two years ago, says Yap Kiang Thiam, Malaysia Airlines strategic planning manager. Passenger connections at Subang are "terrible", says Yap.
At Subang, Malaysia Airlines has to allow 1.5h for passengers connecting from domestic to international flights and vice versa. KLIA will allow the airline to cut 30min off scheduled connection times.
Source: Flight International
