Business

Tuesday November 3, 2009

Subang city airport hopes passenger traffic will rise

By B.K. SIDHU


PETALING JAYA: Subang SkyPark Sdn Bhd is in talks with several parties in the region and the Government to get more turboprop operators to fly from this newly refurbished city airport.

“We are looking at two more carriers to fly out of Subang next year,” said executive director Tan Sri Ravindran Menon.

Touted as the best city airport in the region, Subang SkyPark is home to private jets. It also houses two turboprop operators – Firefly and Berjaya Air – which together operate over 60 daily local and regional flights.

Tan Sri Ravindran Menon ... ‘We can only go for those which have turboprop operations.’

With more carriers and destinations, Ravindran expects the number of daily flights to increase to over 100 by next year.

“We are still talking to regional players in Thailand and Indonesia. We can only go for those which have turboprop operations,” he told StarBiz but declined to name the parties.

He is also hoping to see the number of passengers using Subang SkyPark increase to 2.5 million next year. The airport handled 80,000 passengers last month.

“When the number of airplanes operating from the airport increases, so will the number of passengers; that is why we are confident of getting 2.5 million passengers using the airport next year,” Ravindran said.

Subang SkyPark was formerly known as Terminal 3 but following a RM40mil facelift and name change, it is now a lifestyle airport that offers impressive facilities to local and corporate travellers.

The 13,936 sq m city airport houses popular food and beverage outlets such as Starbucks, Big Apple Donuts & Coffee, Kapitan Kopitiam, 1901 Hotdogs and Sakura Cuisine Cafe.

There is also an ice cream bar, an Italian pizza restaurant and a sports bar. It has 13 check-in counters and separate departure and arrival halls for international and domestic travellers.

This new concept in the aviation industry has impressed many visitors including senior executives from several state governments in India.

At least three state governments in India have invited Subang SkyPark to participate in the small category airport development there.

India has been investing heavily the past few years to build new airports and expand existing airport infrastructure, and over 100 new airports have been planned for development there.

“We are still in discussions with them, that is why we cannot name the states as yet. What is important is that they like our concept and we could replicate the model for some of their small airports,” Ravindran said.

He added that Subang SkyPark was “not just an airport, it is a city airport with a lifestyle.”

“We are the only one in the region with such an airport and many parties around the region and elsewhere have made inquiries of how this can be replicated,” Ravindran said.

The airport was developed in partnership with Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd and there will be sharing of revenues.

“This was an airport that was lying idle for 11 years but has now sprung to life again and from a financial viewpoint, it is an interesting development.

“It will break even and even make profit at some point in its journey as we will continue to focus on the turboprop and corporate aviation business,” Ravindran said.

It was earlier reported that Subang SkyPark expects to generate a revenue of between RM6mil and RM7mil in the first 12 operating months.

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