Malaysia to build aviation hub with air cargo, logistics, aerospace and aviation

The project surrounding Kuala Lumpur International Airport is called KLIA Aeropolis, which has total land area of 100 square kilometres.
Airport operator Malaysia Airports Holdings, which is behind the project, also wants to bring meetings and conventions facilities to Sepang, located about an hour away by car from downtown Kuala Lumpur.
Malaysia’s biggest airport has two terminals – the main KLIA terminal and the recently opened KLIA2 for low-cost carriers.
In May of last year, the Mitsui Outlet Park KLIA – billed as the largest factory outlet shopping mall in Southeast Asia – was opened just 6km away from the airport.
The area is also home to the Sepang International Circuit that hosts F1 races and other motorsports events.
Malaysia Airports envisions the aviation hub contributing 30 billion ringgit (Bt260 billion) to Malaysia’s economic growth over the next 15 years, with 56,000 jobs created.
Launching the KLIA Aeropolis on Monday, officials said it will complement services offered in Singapore and its main Changi airport.
“We are not competing with Changi,” said Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai at the press conference.
Citing increasing air traffic in Asia, officials said Malaysia is taking in the spill-over effect from its neighbour.
“There’s enough demand being generated,” said Badlisham Ghazali, managing director of Malaysia Airports, referring to growth in air travel and the need for more planes, spare parts and maintenance.
“Singapore has a capacity, land constraint. They have the ecosystem but because it can’t expand, businesses are looking at us,” said Malaysia Airports general manager Randhill Singh.
Randhill said Malaysia is also looking at European firms eyeing offshore opportunities.
“The idea is to bring them here,” he said.
Through the Aeropolis project, Malaysia is planning to raise its cargo and logistics traffic in five years.
With 726,000 tonnes of cargo per year, Malaysia intends to catch up to Singapore’s 1.8 million tonnes, banking on the growth of e-commerce.
Officials said Malaysia has the capacity and manpower needed to make Aeropolis work with programmes already in place.
“Definitely we will train enough talent for the needs of this industry,” Liow said.
The main international airport KLIA services 50 million passengers annually, compared to Singapore’s 55 million.