| KLIA LOSING AIRPORTS BATTLE March 13, 2001 SOME four months ago when British Airways (BA) announced its shock decision to scrap all flights to Kuala Lumpur, the chairman of the company managing Malaysia's ultra modern airport shrugged it off nonchalantly. "It's no big deal. They (British Airways) only come four times a week," said Malaysia Airports Berhad (MAB) chairman Basir Ismail. Wrong. It is a big deal. Especially when Japan's second-biggest airline, All Nippon Airways (ANA) dropped a similar bombshell on Basir and the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) late last month. Just like BA, ANA will be stopping all flights into the 9 billion ringgit KLIA, about 50 km south of Kuala Lumpur (KL), from next month. Both airlines explained they were pulling out because they were suffering heavy losses on the routes. ANA's slap in the face of the Malaysian airport authorities is all the more painful since two other major airlines - Australia's Qantas and Germany's Lufthansa - had pulled out of Kuala Lumpur in the past two years. Malaysia's air-hub ambitions faces increasing challenge from the neighbouring countries of Thailand and Singapore, with Malaysia, and KL, sandwiched between. Thailand is set to build a 120 billion baht (S$4.9 billion) airport south-east of Bangkok, while Singapore's Changi Airport will complete its third and most modern terminal at a cost of S$1.54 billion by 2006. Industry analysts say Changi Airport may likely emerge the winner in the regional race as landing in Changi is the same as landing in the Malaysian capital. For instance, Changi will benefit from KLIA's setback as BA, which had flown the London-KL route for 50 years, will divert about 100,000 passengers a year to Singapore when it scraps the KL route from April 1. ANA's general manager in Malaysia, Tsutomu Ota, said the airline was pulling out because it was losing money on the route. It currently flies into KL five times a week from Japan's Kansai airport with a stopover in Bangkok. Passengers flying to KL from Kansai would have to take connecting flights in Bangkok or Singapore, he said. Since its opening in 1998, KLIA has been struggling to attract major airlines to land at there. So far, the airport has about 40 airlines. In contrast, Changi Airport's two terminals handle almost 60 carriers. Many big-time carriers have not chosen KLIA as the main point of connectivity to the rest of the region. Only one American carrier, Northwest Airlines, flies to KLIA. Other American carriers -- United Airlines, American Airlines and Continental Airlines -- operate out of Changi. Other big players conspicuously absent at KLIA include Air France, Air New Zealand, Scandinavian Airlines and SwissAir. The number of travelers using KLIA -- designed to handle 25 million passengers a year and up to 60 million travelers by 2020 -- has been below expectations. When BA announced the pull out, even the pro-government Business Times newspaper lambasted the airport authorities. The paper said BA's pull-out should serve as a "wake-up call'' for the KLIA management, which it said has not implemented any strategic business plan since the airport's opening. In an editorial titled "No time for flights of fancy", the daily had asked why the airlines had dropped KLIA from their networks despite the high-tech facilities. "It only goes to show how challenging the times are and how much work remains to be done for KLIA to mount a credible assault on the highly established bases of Bangkok and Singapore, for example." The opposition Democratic Action Party went further. Its chairman Lim Kit Siang said: "After more than two years of operation, the passenger-unfriendly KLIA stands as a warning of how the high-tech ambition of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, as symbolised by the MSC, could flop as disastrously as the "airport of the future". Instead of becoming an important international aviation hub of the 21st century, KLIA is now in danger of becoming the world's most expensive "spoke" airport, said Lim. KLIA is an important component of Mahathir's brain child - the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) - a Malaysian version of Silicon Valley. Malaysian authorities are scrambling to put on a brave face, and in a typical response, announced the setting up of yet another panel to resolve the problem. Transport Minister Ling Liong Sik said Sunday his ministry had set up a special "hubbing'' committee to attract more foreign airlines to fly to KL. The body would include representatives from Malaysia Airports and national carrier Malaysia Airlines. The plight of KLIA serves as an invaluable lesson to the government of Mahathir, whose approach has been to build multi billion-ringgit state-of-the-art facilities and hope business will come flowing in. More often than not, it does not work out that way. - Asiafeatures.com |
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| Dr Ling disagrees hubbing team failed to promote KLIA Associated Press Eirmalasare Bani April 05, 2001 TRANSPORT Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ling Liong Sik yesterday dismissed talk that the KL International Airport (KLIA) hubbing committee had failed to effectively promote the RM10 billion airport. He said all efforts to promote the airport have been made, such as beefing up the security system as well as upgrading the counter, retail and cargo services. ''In addition, research was carried out to market KLIA more aggressively to potential airlines whose competitors are already here,'' Dr Ling told reporters in Kuala Lumpur yesterday. The hubbing committee was set up in October 1999 to work towards making the KLIA a preferred aviation hub, capable of handling some 25 million passengers annually in the next five years. The committee is represented by officials from relevant agencies and companies, including the Transport Ministry, Malaysia Airlines, Department of Civil Aviation and Malaysia Airports (Sepang) Sdn Bhd. Chaired by Transport Ministry secretary-general Datuk Zaharah Shaari, the committee will ensure operational excellence at KLIA and come up with plans to woo airlines and freight companies to use the airport. Some industry observers have blamed the hubbing committee's lack of efforts to promote the KLIA as one of the reasons why four airlines have pulled out their services from Kuala Lumpur. British Airways stopped their services between London and Kuala Lumpur on April 1, while Japan's All-Nippon Airlines pulled out on March 24. Earlier, Germany's carrier Lufthansa and Australian national airline Qantas Airways also terminated their services. All the airlines cited unprofitable routes because of low load factor as the reason for pulling out their services. Sources told Business Times recently that the committee had met only three times last year. KLIA was voted 14th overall best airport in the world by the International Air Transport Association Global Survey in 1998, and the sixth overall best the following year. Last year, both KLIA and Subang International Airport handled 16.8 million passengers, an increase of 11 per cent over 1999. Cargo movements at both airports experienced a 22.1 per cent increase at 526,487,727kg. However, a slight decrease was reported in aircraft movements at 134,762 against 139,473 in 1999. On a separate note, Dr Ling said Malaysia Airlines is still talking to several foreign companies which are interested in acquiring a stake in the national carrier. |
| Wednesday May 2 Fifth airline stops service to KLIA 6:33pm, Wed: (AFP) - Russia's Aeroflot has become the fifth foreign carrier to halt services to Malaysia's main international airport since it opened in June 1998, officials said today. Aeroflot's twice-weekly services to Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) stopped at the end of March, the airline's local cargo manager Zainal Abidin told national news agency Bernama. Aeroflot officials could not be reached for comment. Officials at the airport confirmed the carrier had stopped its services. Japan's All Nippon Airways, British Airways, Qantas and Lufthansa have also stopped flying to the futuristic KLIA, dealing a blow to efforts to promote it as a regional aviation hub. Zainal, quoted by Bernama, blamed consistently low yields in the last three years. Aeroflot had been flying from Moscow to Kuala Lumpur via Singapore using Ilyushin IL-96 aircraft with passenger capacity of just over 200 and cargo space of about eight tonnes. It started flying to Malaysia 27 years ago. Zainal said the flights to Singapore would continue. He said Aeroflot plans to re-route flights from Moscow to Kuala Lumpur via New Delhi or Calcutta, depending on whether Malaysian authorities would waive royalties when allowing it to exercise fifth-freedom rights. Loss to Singapore Walter Culas, chairman of the Airfreight Forwarders Association of Malaysia, described the suspension of the Aeroflot services as Malaysia's loss to Singapore. He said Aeroflot's cargo rates had been very competitive and urged the government's National Economic Action Council (NEAC) to investigate why several foreign carriers had withdrawn. On April 20 the government announced major cuts in charges to increase business at the RM9 billion ringgit airport, sited 50km south of Kuala Lumpur. It said new passenger flights would be excused landing and parking charges for one year, as would extra flights by airlines which already serve KLIA. Flights must be at least 25 percent full to qualify. The NEAC said Monday the airport would speed up baggage handling and sort out taxi woes as part of attempts to become a regional hub. Last modified:Wednesday May 2, 6:41 pm Print version of this story |