‘Expansion for 10mil passengers not enough’
> Lim wants capacity for Penang airport increased to 13 million arrivals
GEORGE TOWN: Expanding the Penang International Airport (PIA) to cater 10 million passengers a year is not enough, according to Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng.
He said the proposed capacity will be reached by 2023 and urged the federal government to expand the airport to accommodate more than 13 million arrivals.
He said the current capacity of 6.5 million passengers was breached four years earlier than expected in 2016 where 6.7 million arrivals were recorded.
“For the first five months of 2017, passenger movements grew by 8.7% and are expected to exceed 7 million passengers by end-2017. Why expand (the capacity of) PIA from 6.5 million passengers to only 10 million when an expansion is needed again in seven years?” he asked in a statement.
The Bagan MP was responding to a parliamentary reply from the Transport Ministry, which said there were plans to expand the PIA to accommodate 10 million passengers up to 2025.
“At this point in time, the matter is still being considered by the government,” said the parliamentary reply, which was sent along with the statement from Lim.
Lim also pointed out Penang has become a favoured tourist destination and listed several factors including its street food, green belts and medical tourism sector.
“With 24,000 hotel rooms and more hotels being built in Penang, failure to expand the airport to cater to the influx of tourists would be a major economic blunder,” he added.