City & Country's interview with Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow #7

What impact will the proposed Kulim airport have on Penang?

Transcript

00:00 The Minister of Transport said there had not been any formal proposal to the Ministry and

00:14 all that.

00:16 But looking at the debate, the original intention for Kulim Airport is just a cargo airport.

00:29 The question is whether you need a cargo airport at this moment because there is still excess

00:41 capacity for cargo in Bayang Lepas.

00:50 So that is their intention.

00:53 But do you build an airport just for cargo?

00:56 I don't think it is tenable, just to build a cargo airport.

01:06 Penang can easily play that role and we have also the Penang port as well.

01:13 But definitely if Kulim is built, it will have some impact on Penang as well.

01:27 One of the reasons people want to be in a certain location is because of infrastructure

01:33 maturity, like airport, seaport, road, electricity, water supply as well.

01:42 So another airport just next to us.

01:46 I mean, investors will have a better choice, they can choose where to go.

01:53 But having two airports needs further study by the relevant transport agencies to ascertain

02:01 whether it is still needed.

02:03 But anyway, just what I have said has become academic in the sense that the plan has been

02:12 shelved I think.

02:15 And Penang airport will be expanded and that would enable us to bring Penang airport into

02:31 another 10-20 years.

02:35 If expansion can still be undertaken over the years, we definitely would be able to

02:42 cater to a bigger number of passengers, even up to 20 million passengers per year.

02:49 At the moment, this airport can only cater to 6.5 million.

02:55 And even before COVID, we are receiving 8 million already.

02:58 It is definitely insufficient to meet with the passengers' load.

03:07 So the talk about expansion plan would be able to cater up to 12, but 12 can easily

03:15 be surpassed very soon.

03:17 So maybe Malaysian airport holdings perhaps must look beyond 12 million, maybe 16 million

03:26 and then eventually 20 million capacity.

03:30 But again, it is a federal project and on our part, we definitely want it to happen.

03:37 Not today, not tomorrow, but yesterday.

03:41 Because the numbers show that even before pandemic, we have already surpassed the numbers

03:49 that can comfortably serve the passengers.

03:56 Thank you.

03:56 [END]