KOTA KINABALU, July 25 — The second busiest airport in the country, the Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA), as well as Tawau airport will receive a total RM19.4 million boost for upgrading works.
Sabah Tourism, Culture and Environment minister Datuk Christina Liew said that Malaysia Airports Sdn Bhd Management (MASB) has allocated RM8.4 million in funds for KKIA and RM11 million for the Tawau airport in the east coast.
“For KKIA, RM1.4 million will be spent on improving the public toilets at the airport, while the remaining sum will be utilised for other upgrading projects. These include resurfacing of the runway, and upgrading of the commercial lots as well as the public address (PA) system,” she said.
Liew, who is a former Tawau MP said MASB has allocated a sum of RM11 million for the optimisation plan for Tawau Airport.
According to her, the plan entails providing additional toilets, upgrading the check-in area with proper segregation between the international and domestic segments, enlarging the departure lounge, adding more shoplots and covering up the open space for installation of air-conditioning units.
“I am very happy to hear the good news from Malaysia Airports. The optimisation plan is most timely, given the steady increase of tourists to Sabah after we have reopened our international borders. The plan for both KKIA and Tawau Airport is for the convenience of travellers.
“Work is expected to start this year but implementation takes time. For instance, building more toilets may take six to eight months to complete,” she said.
KKIA is the second busiest airport in Malaysia in terms of passenger handling with a capacity of nine million passengers per annum.
“As of June this year (preliminary Year to date (YTD), the airport had handled 3,299,076 passengers with 28,642 aircraft movements,” said MASB senior general manager Kamaruzzaman Razali during a courtesy call on Liew today.
