SEPANG: Malaysia Aiport Holdings Bhd (MAHB) is optimistic that the KL International Airport (KLIA) will be ranked among the top 10 world’s busiest airports next year from the 14th position this year.
Managing Director Datuk Badlisham Ghazali said KLIA had the opportunity to improve its position in terms of international arrivals.
“At present, KLIA is the ninth most connected airports internationally,” he said after the KLIA Awards 2016 dinner here last night.
Badlisham attributed KLIA’s position as the 14th world’s busiest airport in terms of international passenger arrivals to MAHB’s collaboration with the government and airlines in attracting international passengers to Malaysia.
“I think one of the success factors is that MAHB has built capacity to receive a higher number of passengers and carried out promotional campaigns together with Tourism Malaysia,” he said.
He said MAHB is currently focusing on attracting passengers from Southeast Asia, China and the Indian subcontinent.
With two terminals, KLIA now has the capacity to handle 75 million passengers a year.
In 2016, KLIA handles 53 million passengers, of them 70 per cent or 37 million were international passengers.
At the event, KLIA’s Department of Health lifted the Government Agency of the Year award, while Emirates was named the Foreign Passenger Airline of the Year, AirAsia (the Passenger Airline of the Year) and VietJet Air (the Promising New Foreign Airline). - Bernama