INFRASTRUCTURE Kuala Lumpur’s modern facilities aims to make the airport a hub for operators
A state-of-the-art welcome

As an alternative handling agent, KLAS provides comprehensive services in ground handling, cargo handling, inflight catering and aircraft maintenance and engineering. Photo shows cargo being transported from “Acceptance Front Line” area into the warehouse to be prepared for delivery to the aircraft.

he state of the airport as a visitor arrives is as good an indication as any of the state of the country. And, if first impressions count most, visitors to Malaysia should be very impressed. The four-year-old Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) was the very first in the world to be equipped with a fully-integrated computer management system.
The ultra-modern airport, whose departure lounge pillars and roofs were designed to represent the palm trees of Malaysia, was built in a clearing within tropical rainforest and its huge, glass walls offer magnificent views. It is everyone’s idea of a clean, efficient place to travel through.

Located at Sepang, 50km from the heart of the capital, KLIA offers direct access to 115 destin-ations across four continents. KLIA’s strategic location boosts its ambition to become the international airline hub for the Asia-Pacific region.
Malaysia Airport Holdings (MAH), which manages the country’s airports, is reducing the number of international facilities by one. There are currently five: KLIA, Penang, Langkawi, Kota Kinabalu and Kuching, and it is the latter which is to close.

Basir Ismail, chairman of Malaysia Airport Holdings, wants Kuala Lumpur to be Malaysia’s hub

“We are reducing the number of international airports because we want to make everybody fly to Kuala Lumpur and make it the hub,” says MAH chairman Basir Ismail. He is keen for new airlines flying on new routes to use KLIA.
“The important thing for Malaysian airports is to have many planes flying to and from many destinations. The more destinations, the better it is for us,” he says.
“Singapore has become a hub because it receives planes from many destinations and London is probably the biggest hub in the world. People look for convenience when making transfers, and if we can get more planes flying to and from Malaysia from more destinations, more people will come here.”

The magnificent pillars and roofs in the departure lounge are designed to represent palm trees

MAH, which also manages 15 domestic and 18 short take-off and landing (STOL) airports, was the sixth airport operator to be listed on a stock exchange after those of London, Rome, Auckland, Vienna and Copenhagen.
Mr Ismail says: “You cannot compare us with other airport companies on stock exchanges – we are different because we control the entire airport system in our country. The need to renew and redevelop old airports largely depends upon whether there are enough passengers.
“I’m very grateful to the government because they will come forward and offer to pay half the cost. For example, at Alor Setar the government built the runway and other facilities, and we built just the terminal buildings. And Tawau airport was built totally by the government.”

MAH has enjoyed steady annual growth of 25 per cent for the past five years by providing operational services to more than 50 airlines, air cargo operations, and retail and duty-free shops. KLIA, which has been designed to last over 100 years, handles around 20 million passengers a year, although a record 32 million passed through the airport in 2000.
The flagship international airport, which boasts dual runways, is designed to be easily expandable over the coming years. By 2020 there will be five 4,000-metre runways and passenger handling capacity will be increased to 100 million a year.

Already Europe’s preferred gateway to Asia, Oceania and Australia, KLIA is also a pick-up and transfer hub for southeast Asian travellers to the US, Canada, Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
MAH controls the Formula One motor-racing track at Sepang, where the Malaysian Grand Prix is held. Mr Ismail confesses that when he was first approached by prime minister Mahathir Mohamed to build a circuit, he replied that F1 was the province of rich, developed countries. But the prime minister was insistent.
“I never thought this would put Malaysia on the map, but the prime minister had thought about it a long time ago,” adds Mr Ismail.

Sharifah Halimah Syed Ahmad, CEO of KL Airport Services, says cargo facilities were started from scratch in 1998

KL Airport Services (KLAS), created in 1995, has quickly established itself at KLIA as a leading operator of not only ground-handling but also cargo handling, in-flight catering and aircraft maintenance and engineering. The company was licensed by the Malaysian government to provide alternative ground handling services to all airports in Malaysia with the objective of providing competition to the industry.
Once KLAS secured its first clients – Federal Express and Emirates Airlines – others followed. “Since then we have built up the strength of the company,” comments the chief executive officer of KLAS, Sharifah Halimah Syed Ahmad.

“We have invested about $78 million for facilities and infrastructure. We have been successful with Middle Eastern carriers such as Saudi Arabian Airlines, Emirates Airlines and Gulf Air, and we have just started with Qatar’s carrier. We have also secured the ground handling for Bangladesh Airlines and Sri Lankan Airlines.”
Ms Sharifah says that it was hard to persuade airlines to use KLAS to begin with. “I think like any other business the biggest challenge is to convince the customer why KLAS should be chosen as a handler and maintain the customers that we have secured, particularly the big players. Obviously, to maintain the customers KLAS has to deliver the service level committed. Getting the staff to consistently deliver the service is equally challenging.”
With a mission to be “the premier airline service provider”, Ms Sharifah says the company would not have succeeded if it had only carried out a single service. “There is no way that KLAS would survive if we ended up doing only catering. The decision to invest in all four services was important and the group spent a lot of money building up the facilities.”