MALAYSIA Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) is believed to have kick-started a new project to expand the size of the contact pier building at the main terminal of Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) in Sepang.
NST Business understands the project, which is still in its infancy stage, is needed to accommodate an additional capacity of 15 million to 20 million passengers per year.
“KLIA (Main Terminal) was currently handling passenger traffic that is already at its maximum numbers. There had been capacity issues during peak hours and it had created congestion at several areas in the airport, such as the immigration and check-in counters,” said sources yesterday.
The sources added that there would be more remote stands for aircraft and bus lounges to carry passengers to the airplanes.
Although the KLIA expansion plan is not a large-scale project, such as the construction of KLIA 2, it would ease the flow of passenger traffic, said sources.
The bigger contact pier area could accommodate traffic of up to a total of 50 million passengers annually.
Last year, the KLIA main terminal alone handled a total of 52.64 million passengers while from January to last month, its passenger traffic was recorded at 23.93 million.
The contact pier handles mostly domestic flights and some international flights but according to sources, the building would handle more international flights upon the completion of its expansion.
Most of the international flights are currently being handled at the satellite terminal.
At press time, MAHB did not reply to an email seeking comments on the KLIA main terminal expansion plan.
However, the airport operator made an open-tender announcement on Tuesday for “Group of Multi-Disciplinary Consultancy Services for the Proposed Terminal Upgrading and Expansion” at KLIA.
The announcement was made on MAHB’s official Instagram account and website.
In February, MAHB managing director Datuk Badlisham Ghazali said it plans to spend over RM100 million to upgrade KLIA and the other 38 airports that it manages in Malaysia.
The upgrading works include the basic facilities at the airports as well as the airside.