The Penang State Exco for Tourism and Creative Economy YB Wong Hon Wai and his team held a meeting with Malaysia Airlines Holding Berhad representatives at the Penang International Airport recently to get first hand updates on its expansion and related matters.
Also present was Penang Global Tourism chief executive officer, Ooi Chok Yan.
Among the highlights of the meeting was –
1) Penang International Airport Expansion project has started with a project team appointed and they are now on site preparation.
2) Since this is a Federal Government project, the launching ceremony is scheduled to be later and launched by the Federal Government.
3) There are three (3) packages involved and targeted to be completed in 2028.
Package 1: Ancillary Buildings Works and Associated Works
Package 2: Apron and Airside Facilities Works
Package 3: Main Terminal Building and Associated Work
4) The teams also need to coordinate with MRT Corp to construct LRT stations near the airport main terminal.
5) Airport optimization with 10 e-gates each in the International departure hall and International arrival hall will start in Nov 2024 and it is estimated to complete in four (4) months.
6) Additional 30 immigration staff will be deployed to man the counter at the end of November.
7) Immigration Department has also set up a Malaysia Digital Arrival Card help desk at the International arrival hall to assist the foreigners who need to fill in the MDAC.
8) Inaugural flight from now until end of the year
(a) Oct 29, 2024: AirAsia flying from Shenzhen to Penang.
(b) Nov 21, 2024: HK Express flying from Hong Kong to Penang
(c) Oct 2, 2024: Qatar Airline will resume it’s flight from Doha to Penang as part of the winter season schedule.
(d) For cargo flight, there will be new Raya Airways flying to Penang.
(e) Indigo Airlines is scheduled to fly from Chennai, India to Penang pending the arrival of the new aircraft.
9) Total Passengers movement from Jan to September 2024 is 5,553,881 passengers. This is an increase of 6.78% as compared to 5,201,419 passengers in the same period last year.
10)Total passenger movement for Penang International Airport was 7 million passengers for 2023. It is estimated it will hit 7.8 million passengers for the year 2024. The airport expansion will cater for 12 million passengers per annum.
Presently, there are direct flight connections to seven (7) cities in China, including Xiamen (Xiamen Airlines), Guangzhou (China Southern Airlines), Shenzhen (Shenzhen Airlines and upcoming AirAsia in October), Hong Kong (Cathay Pacific, AirAsia, and upcoming HK Express Airways in November), Shanghai (Juneyao Airlines and Shanghai Airlines), Haikou (Batik Air charters), and Chongqing (Firefly Airlines charters).
