Tender out for Penang airport’s RM1.5bil expansion project

GEORGE TOWN: Penang International Airport (PIA), the gateway into the north of the peninsula, is poised to become the second biggest airport in the country, with a RM1.5bil expansion project to be completed in 2028.Currently, 16 commercial aircraft can park at the terminal.

With the expansion, PIA will be able to take 28 planes at any one time with an additional six parking bays and six remote parking bays.

The new design will nearly double PIA’s annual handling capacity of 6.5 million passengers per annum (MPPA) now to 12 MPPA, equalling Kota Kinabalu International Airport’s (KKIA) capacity. KKIA now has 16 aircraft parking bays.

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The PIA expansion would include the construction of a new multi-storey car park with an additional 1,700 parking bays, increasing the capacity to 3,400 lots. PIA now has a RM70mil seven-storey car park which opened last April.

The expansion will also double the terminal’s gross floor area to 115,000sq m from 55,0000sq m, according to Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB).

“The physical work will start in the third quarter of 2024, and the terminal expansion construction in the third quarter of 2025 will take 33 months to complete. The targeted completion date is in the second quarter of 2028,” it said in a statement.

MAHB recently advertised and called for a tender for the PIA expansion project, including the new main terminal building, multi-storey car park and also the construction of an ancillary building, the Air Traffic Control Tower, and the Civil Aviation Authority Malaysia (CAAM) office.

The new terminal design is expected to include a holistic, robust and vibrant terminal environment.

Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said the state government had been requesting the expansion of the PIA for more than six years.

“The Federal Government has finally decided to approve and fund this project,” he said.

The Cabinet approved PIA’s expansion plans on Feb 21.

The project has also obtained the development order and building approval from the Penang Island City Council.

“A bigger and more conducive airport will attract more tourists to Penang, which can only boost our economic recovery and tourism sector,” said Chow, the Batu Kawan MP.

He said that once the project was completed, PIA would enhance the socioeconomic development of the Northern Corridor states and the Penang industrial sectors.

MAHB said the expansion would take place in the current airport land area and also on neighbouring land for road and infrastructure development.

It will not involve any land reclamation work.

The expansion would involve some nearby land and the staff quarters near the car park.

The Penang government has resolved the relocation of the over 50 MAHB staff, offering them affordable homes in Teluk Kumbar.

“As for the proposed Silicon Island which will be developed in the south of PIA, any development will be subject to approval by CAAM; for example, on the building’s height limitation.

“The proposed airport expansion does not interfere with Silicon Island as it focuses on terminal expansion only,” MAHB said.

The 87-year-old PIA has undergone several infrastructure expansions over the years, with the first from 1977 to 1979, giving it an annual capacity of 1.5 million passengers.

It was again upgraded in 1998 to accommodate 3.5 million passengers. In 2013, its capacity was increased to 6.5 million passengers.

Travel growth surged and by 2019, the airport was handling 8.3 million passengers yearly, leading to overcrowding at the terminal and calls for another upgrade.

While admitting that the expansion project was good for the state, Penang Freight Forwarders Association was worried that it might not benefit MASkargo (Malaysia Airlines Bhd Cargo), next to the airport.

Its honorary secretary-general Ali Ahmad said the authorities had not spoken to the association about any extension of the cargo area.

“If the cargo section isn’t extended, we won’t be able to increase the volume of cargo handled at the airport. This means there will be fewer cargo freighters landing in Penang,” he said.

Currently, PFFA members operate in 32 warehouses on an approximately 30,000sq ft site next to the airport.

Penang International Airport is one of the oldest airports in the country.

First called the Bayan Lepas International Airport, it was completed in 1935.

It was modernised in 1979 and expanded in 2013 and is now the third busiest airport in the country in terms of passenger traffic, after KL International Airport (KLIA) and Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA).

The airport experienced its peak passenger traffic of 8.3 million in 2019, surpassing its capacity of 6.5 million passengers, leading to calls for its expansion. In 2022, at the tail end of the Covid-19 pandemic, it saw 4.5 million passengers. Last year, the number rose to nearly seven million.

According to local records, the oldest airport in Malaysia is Taiping Airport which was built by the British in 1929.

The first international airport was Sungai Besi Airport which was built in 1930.

Subang International Airport, which was completed in 1965, then took over as the country’s main airport until KLIA was opened in 1998.