Perak govt plans to upgrade Pangkor airstrip

Tan (background, in grey T-shirt) with tour agents from Hong Kong onboard the Hop-on Hop-off bus in Ipoh on Saturday.

IPOH: The Perak government is planning to upgrade the airstrip in Pangkor to accommodate bigger aircraft, allowing more tourists to fly to the island.

State Tourism Committee chairman Tan Kar Hing said the state recognised the need for the upgrade as Pangkor would have duty-free status from next year.

"I will visit Pangkor next week. We will have discussions with some companies to have domestic flights to and from Ipoh and several other airports in the country," he told reporters after welcoming a group of Hong Kong tourist agents to ride on the hop-on, hop-off bus here on Saturday (May 18).

"We need to study the technical aspects first and will discuss this further with Malaysia Airports Holding Bhd," he said.

It was reported that the state had submitted an application to gazette Pangkor as a tax-free island.

The status for the island was first announced by the previous Barisan National administration during the tabling of Budget 2018 in Parliament.

The status will see the island be exempted from the Sales and Services Tax (SST).

Tan said the response towards the tourist bus was good since its launch in March.

He said about 2,000 passengers have experienced it so far.

"The numbers grow every week. We are getting two more open-top buses prepared by the end of this month.

"At the end of June, we will start the second phase to extend the routes to Tambun and Gopeng," he added.- Star