Miri Airport to undergo minor extension soon, says Lee
MIRI: Malaysia Airports Berhad ( MAB) will call tender for Miri Airport’s optimisation project sometime this year.
Assistant Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture Datuk Lee Kim Shin said MAB is now in the final stage of going through the details of the project, which will cost over RM20 million.
“During a meeting on Jan 18, 2018, the Transport Ministry agreed with MAB to carry out optimisation plan for Miri Airport.
“It is a minor extension project to cater for the urgent need of the airport, while waiting for another major upgrading plan to be approved,” Lee told the media after being briefed on the latest progress of the airport’s extension plan at MAB office here yesterday.
Lee said he was looking forward to the completion of the optimisation plan, which would increase airport capacity to three million people.
However, he urged the federal government to continue with the major upgrading plan for Miri Airport as the capacity under the optimisation plan could only last until 2026.
Based on capacity ranking data, Miri Airport is ranked seventh busiest in the country in terms of passenger handling as of 2016.
With such strong position, he felt that Miri Airport deserved to be upgraded into international airport status.
On the optimisation project, to be funded by MAB, Lee said there would be major improvement, including the traffic flow.
According to the plan, there will be additional departure lounges for international passengers, separate arrival hall for rural air services ( RAS) and domestic services, while check-in counters would be increased from 15 to 24.
There will be no separate service for luggage security scanning as such service would be conducted during the check-in procedure.
“Once these facilities are in place, I am sure we will be able to get more direct international flights to Miri.
“Miri only has one direct flight from Singapore, which is served by AirAsia with two flights daily. We used to have direct flights to Pontianak and Manila.”
Piasau assemblyman Datuk Sebastian Ting and Miri Airport manager Zainal Abidin Harun were also present at the briefing.