By Himanshu Bhatt.

THERE has been a buzz of sorts at Penang International Airport, and it’s not just from jet engines. Unknown to many, the airport had earlier this year won two regional awards for its handling of passenger and cargo traffic.

On March 5, it was named “Airport of the Year” (for annual passenger traffic below 15 million people) at the Frost & Sullivan’s Asia-Pacific Aerospace and Defence Awards in Singapore.

This was followed by it being recognised as the “Best Emerging Airport” (for annual cargo traffic of 500,000  tonnes and below) at the 2009 Asian Freight and Supply Chain Awards on April 22.

Strangely enough, although the two accolades could serve to spiral the state’s reputation among investors and tourists, the chief minister himself came to know about the recognitions only in May, during a meeting with Malaysia Airports Bhd (MAB). The federal government itself has been largely quiet about the awards.

But no sooner had the airport’s management recovered from the euphoria of having bagged the awards when just a couple of months later the federal government announced a RM250 million allocation to upgrade the airport.

The amount, channelled through the country’s second stimulus package, would be used to expand the passenger terminal while improving its facade. The project would also entail segregation of international and domestic passengers. A new central utility building would also be built, together with a multi-storey carpark and new security fencing.

For the Penang government, the project has been long overdue. The Pakatan Rakyat administration had been complaining since it took power in March last year that the airport, which comes under the purview of MAB, was in a “deplorable condition”. To drum in his point, Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng went as far as to point his finger at the poor state of public toilets there.

In fact, Lim had become so frustrated that he said if MAB could not get approval from the federal government to upgrade the airport, the state should be given permission to look into a private initiative for the effort. Among other things, the runway needed to be lengthened and widened to allow large aircraft such as the Boeing 747 and the A380 Airbus to land. 

The airport’s last upgrading works were done in 2001 at a cost of RM38.7 million. But passenger arrivals have since shot up. In 2008, there were 39,798 flights at the airport, with more than 3.4 million passengers and 300,000 tonnes of cargo. By comparison, it had recorded some 2.5 million passengers and 100,000 tonnes in 1990.  

The turning point came in February. Transport Minister Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat, who is also MCA president, held a press conference during the party’s state-level meeting, to label Penang’s economic scenario “worrying”. His ministry, he said, had taken upon itself to expand the number of planes flying to Penang as such a move would help boost the state’s economic condition.

Some observers may have thought Ong’s pronouncement was nothing but political bragging. But just four months later in June, Ong took industry and political observers aback when he announced the federal government’s plan to extend its liberalisation policy for airline services to Penang.

As part of the policy, the Transport Ministry would allow a record 84 flights a week between Penang and Singapore by 2010, and a new direct flight to Chennai run by AirAsia was approved for launch within the next four months. More direct flights to new destinations in Indonesia, Thailand and China were also said to be in the offing.

The irony was that smack amid a global financial downturn, Penang was to see a level of air traffic and airport infrastructure as it had never had before.

But there are some quarters that are still less than happy. Freight forwarders, for instance, lament that the cargo complex had not been included in the upgrading plans.

And the state government is still clamouring for a low-cost carrier terminal which it says is needed to handle an increasing number of budget airlines coming to Penang. The concern is not without merit. AirAsia, which estimates that some 1.7 million low-cost carrier passengers will use the airport this year, says the number is likely to increase to 3.8 million by 2013.

The state administration has doggedly applied pressure for more funding for this second most important airport in the country. And to his credit, Ong, together with the federal government, has shown that his promises to improve the airport have been much more than plain fluff.

If it is political competition that has spurred the recent developments for Penang’s international airport, then the winner at the end of the day must turn out to be the people of Penang.
 
** Republished with permission. This article first appeared in the July 30, 2009 of theSun. Himanshu is the newspaper's bureau chief in Penang.

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