The Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA) and Tawau Airport in Sabah will undergo a facelift with an allocation of RM8.4 million and RM11 million respectively from Malaysia Airports Sdn Bhd (MASB). The announcement was made by Sabah Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister, Datuk Christina Liew, who was informed about the funding during a courtesy call by MASB’s senior general manager, Kamaruzzaman Razali.
Liew expressed her happiness and stated that the funding comes at a timely moment, considering the steady increase in tourist arrivals to Sabah after the reopening of international borders. Out of the allocated funds for KKIA, RM1.4 million will be utilized to upgrade the public toilets, while the remaining amount will be utilized for other improvement projects. These projects include resurfacing the runway, upgrading the commercial lots, and improving the public address (PA) system.
For Tawau Airport, the plans include constructing additional toilets, upgrading the check-in area with better segregation between international and domestic segments, enlarging the departure lounge, adding more shoplots, and covering up open spaces for the installation of air-conditioning units.
Liew mentioned that the work is expected to commence this year, although the implementation will take some time. She estimated that building additional toilets may take six to eight months to complete.
Kamaruzzaman highlighted that KKIA is the second busiest airport in the country in terms of passenger handling and was originally designed to handle nine million passengers per year. He reported that, as of June this year, the airport has already handled 3,299,076 passengers and 28,642 aircraft movements.
The meeting also featured the presence of Liew’s deputy permanent secretary, I Mary Malangking, as well as MASB’s senior manager (engineering), Mohd Sabri Abd Aziz, senior manager (operations), Sunif Naiman, and KKIA operations manager, Hassim Duman.
Overall, the funding provided by MASB for the KKIA and Tawau Airport will contribute to the improvement and optimization of these key airports in Sabah.
Credit: The Star : News Feed
