SUBANG JAYA, Feb 6 — The Malaysian government has agreed to embark on a redevelopment plan to transform the Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport (LTSAAS) in Subang into a premium city airport and aerospace hub within the city centre.

Dubbed the Subang Airport Regeneration Plan (SARP), Transport minister Anthony Loke said he had presented the SARP — initially proposed by Malaysian Airport Holdings Berhad (MAHB) — to the Cabinet on February 2, subsequently obtaining Cabinet’s approval for the enactment of the policy framework after much deliberation.

"Through SARP, LTSAAS will morph into a regional aviation hub with a maximum capacity of 8 million annual passengers.

"The redevelopment of LTSAAS is a national project of revival underpinned by the guiding principles of Malaysia Madani.

"I think this is a major game-changer as far as Subang Airport is concerned,” he told a press conference here at LTSAAS today.

Loke said there were seven components involved in the SARP, namely the aerospace industry centre; maintenance, repair and overhaul centre; research and development centre; general aviation operations; business aviation operations; urban air mobility and regional commercial flight operations.

Explaining further, Loke said the SARP included the reintroduction of scheduled commercial passenger flights and belly cargo flights utilising narrow body jets up to the size of A320/B737 or equivalent aircraft which had been discontinued since 2002.

"When the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) began operations in 1998, this airport gradually winded down its operations and jet engines were disallowed from operating while turboprop aircrafts such as those operated by Firefly and Malindo Air remained in operation to serve domestic flights.

"One of the biggest policy changes is that the government is now allowing narrow body jets to operate again in this airport, but for this to happen there must be redevelopment (of the airport terminals),” he said.

He also stressed that the redevelopment of Subang Airport is not aimed at replacing the country’s main international gateway of KLIA in Sepang, but to transform the former into a city airport complementing KLIA such as London City Airport in the United Kingdom.

Loke said the next step is now for MAHB to conclude its detailed business plan, including engagement with stakeholders and industry players following which the estimated final cost of the airport’s redevelopment will then be announced once it is re-tabled in Cabinet as early as March.

As for the temporary suspension on the Skypark Link service between KL Sentral and Subang Skypark from February 15 onwards, Loke said the suspension will be lifted when the airport's redevelopment completes.

The Skypark Link service was suspended following poor ridership with less than 100 passengers daily.