Among others, the airline wants to move back to KKIA Terminal 2 and bring in AirAsia X to promote long-haul flights.
VIDEO INSIDE
The abandoned KKIA Terminal 2. AirAsia is hoping to move its services back to the terminal.
KOTA KINABALU: AirAsia is in talks with the Sabah government over the possibility of returning to the Kota Kinabalu International Airport’s (KKIA) Terminal 2 in Tanjung Aru here.
AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernandes met with Chief Minister Shafie Apdal today to present the airline’s case over the re-opening of the low-cost airport terminal.
“Sabah has always been very important to us. As you know, we were never in favour of moving into Terminal 1 (the main airport)… we really believe in Terminal 2.
“So, we think we can move back within six months and everything is almost as we left it. Terminal 1 is getting full anyway,” he said here today.
He said the plan was to refurbish Terminal 2, an undertaking the company was willing to fund.
He said the airline was confident of pushing passenger arrivals to about five million a year.
Fernandes also said Shafie “seemed open” to the idea. “He is thinking of a new airport but it will take five years, maybe longer.
“In that time, we can use Terminal 2 to create new tourism flows. Sabah has been a key market for us but we think we can do more,” he said.
“We believe we can grow Sabah tourist (arrivals) by 2022 to nine million but we need support in terms of airport facilities.
“We think Sabah is perfectly placed between Australia and north Asia and this could be a big hub for the Asean region as well.”
Fernandes also spoke to the chief minister about bringing the low-cost carrier’s long-haul flight service, AirAsia X, to Sabah.
“We’d like to bring flights from KK to Perth, Sydney and Melbourne, and flights to China, Japan, Korea and India,” he said, adding that they are looking to extend these flights to Sabah’s east coast Tawau and Sandakan districts.
“That was the main presentation to the chief minister to seek his support. We obviously saw the tourism minister (Mohammad Din Ketapi) and also the minister of transport (Anthony Loke),” he said.
Fernandes said AirAsia would also be putting more items from Sabah on its online shopping website, which promotes products by Asean companies in the food, health and fashion industries.
“I noticed every time we came to Sabah, my staff would run off to buy prawns, so why not put the prawns on the website?
“We also spoke on education. As we digitalise AirAsia, we need more data scientists and analysts, so we brought the matter up with the chief minister to see how we can work with the state government to create this talent pool,” said Fernandes.
“And finally, (we talked about having) a flying school. As we grow, we need more pilots and we discussed the possibility of creating a flying school either in Tawau or Sandakan.”
AirAsia moved out of KKIA Terminal 2 to the main terminal on Dec 1, 2015 after years of fending off orders from Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (MAHB). - FMT
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