KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's proposed first dedicated business jet terminal in Subang is still in limbo due to differing views between the Selangor and federal governments.
Selangor state government senior executive councillor Datuk Teng Chang Khim said it had proposed to turn the current Subang Skypark into a private jet terminal and build a new terminal as a replacement.
"We had mooted this idea two years ago before the Covid-19 pandemic but were unable to obtain the response from relevant federal agencies. This is disappointing. We should be far-sighted to look into making Selangor especially Subang Airport as a business jet hub.
"I believe we have the capability and potential to compete with other airports in the region such as Seletar Airport in Singapore," he said at a press conference after the soft launch of Selangor Aviation Show (SAS) 2021 here yesterday.
He said the state's proposal had taken into account industry players' input.
"We have the support from private sector to participate but the land around Subang mostly belongs to the federal government, through Khazanah Nasional Bhd and Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) as the leaseholders," he said.
Khazanah and MAHB had the authority over the project to be carried out in Subang, Teng added.
National Aerospace Industry Coordinating Office head Shamsul Kamar Abu Samah said the government was looking at the proposal.
"We are quite supportive to any proposal that can strengthen our ecosystem. In the case of post-Covid-19, we can see business and general aviation growing.
"There might be a huge potential for us in developing private jet terminal and so on. We do have Subang Skypark but we need to see how we can become a regional player rather than utilise it as a terminal to serve Malaysians and our own business community," he said.
He said several land issues had been resolved among the parties and the government would look into proposals that can develop the industry.
Invest Selangor chief executive officer Datuk Hasan Azhari Idris said Selangor aimed to attract more aerospace players to set up base in the state.
"Currently, we have over 170 players. Selangor state government aims to grow to about 200 players by the end of this year.
"We want to promote the ecosystem and space for players to operate their manufacturing plant and facilities in Sepang, Subang and Serendah," he said.
Industry players there are involved in the manufacturing (parts and components) and maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) services, training centre, and avionics companies.
"We have a 10-year action plan. We hope we can work within the period to achieve the 30 actions that we planned to implement," he said.
Hasan Azhari said Selangor was home to 63 per cent of the country's aerospace players.
"We target to grow the number to between 65 per cent and 70 per cent by end of this year," he added.