Malaysia revamps offer for free parking at main airport

Asian Economic News, May 13, 2002

KUALA LUMPUR, May 3 Kyodo

In an effort to boost traffic, Malaysia has updated its discount on landing and parking fees for airlines that introduce new or additional flights to Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), Transport Minister Ling Liong Sik said Friday.

The 100% discount, valid for the next five years, complements ''marketing efforts to promote KLIA to airline operators to bring in critical mass passenger load,'' Ling said.

The offer replaces the current 50% discount offer, official news agency Bernama quoted him as saying.

The government announced last year a staggered three-year discounting method that offers free landing and parking in the first year, a 50% discount in the second year starting May 1 this year and a 25% in the third year to airlines that offer new flights to KLIA.

The government, however, revamped the initial package to further shore up traffic and bring back several carriers that deserted the state-of-the-art airport in favor of Singapore or Bangkok.

Lufthansa was the first to stop flying into KLIA in 1999, followed by Australia's Qantas, British Airways and Japan's All Nippon Airways.

The $2.8 billion-dollar airport, which opened in 1998, was built to handle as many as 25 million passengers a year but only 14.6 million people passed through it last year.

The airport's manager, Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd. announced last month it would embark on a $2.6 million marketing blitz to prop up the airport's image worldwide.

Bernama quoted Ling as saying that the staggered discounting method had to be reviewed ''to enable airline operators to assess and plan whether their landing in KLIA would be profitable.''

He said there is now increased interest among airline operators like Qantas, Cathay Pacific and the Emirates to land in KLIA or increase their flights there.

As of October last year, airlines paid 229.50 ringgit (about $60) and 53 ringgit to park a wide and narrow bodied aircraft, respectively, for a period of less than 12 hours at KLIA.