Here in my home; I support the building of KLIA East @ Labu Airport

I was going through my usual blog visits when I saw this on my lecturer’s blog.

More details at http://www.malaysianartistesforunity.info/

I replayed this song over and over again (listening to it as I am writing this) as if it brings me closer to my home. The video was made last year which also included Datuk Tony Fernandes in it. This gave me thought to the recent squabble of KLIA East airport that Tun Dr. Mahathir was against here and here.

Undoubtedly he is one of better minds in Malaysia’s leaders. His quick wit and thinking had got him through the administration since he took up the office. However, has age caught up to him? I do not know. As to why he is opposing the project, one could only speculate. So far all the reasons that I had read in his blog is hardly anything solid. Yet, time and time again he pushes these facts and gained support from his blog readers (to put it in a racist manner, mainly Malays, no offense intended). The greater portion of these comments are hardly constructive which indicates that they did not comprehend the situation completely (or even one-sided towards his blog). Saying of which government money will be wasted in a direct manner as if the words “privately funded” was not there at all. Indeed, one could argue that no matter how much privatization is involved, the government will need to contribute from time to time (one situation would be the maintenance of the roads that will go to Labu). But the major costs involved will be absorbed by the company. Which from a general POV, it should be beneficial to all parties.

My stand on this issue is to support the building of this new airport. It was just last month when I last visited LCCT to take a flight and during the afternoon/evening session, you can see passengers crowding the terminal. People were having long queues to check-in their luggages while other family members crowded in a small corner that they can find to say their goodbyes to them. I had arrived about 2 hours before departure and was looking for a seat to idle my time away. To my amazement, I could not find a seat at all! You can see some of the people even sitting along the walkway just to get their legs rested from queuing up for checking in. Just from this stand point alone, it is well justified enough to build a new airport.

I won’t be going through the controversial as these can be easily read from the newspapers. People do not understand the need of moving AWAY from KLIA or from the grasp of MAHB. MAHB could not promise AirAsia an airport by 2010 when AirAsia has an even larger fleet of aircrafts delivered to them. It was clearly pointed out that the land that MAHB planned to build the new low cost terminal is over a swamp land. Yes, you can make the land stable and suited for building an airport. However these things takes time, and I believe time is against AirAsia this time (ironically since many people complain their flight delays). Dr. M has mentioned that not all airplanes will be parked in the LCCT. I beg to differ as there are no flights during the night (frequent fliers with AirAsia would know) apart from the longer international flights (not including close flights such as Singapore). This would mean the majority of the fleet will still be grounded. If they do not have enough parking bays, will MAHB allow AirAsia to park their planes on the tarmac?

Another point which should be emphasized is that the cost proposed by MAHB is almost double of what can be done at KLIA East. This is all done without a runway for AirAsia’s own use. Why would I want to pay more for a car if I don’t get the perks of having ABS, body kits and all the fancy accessories? The same reasoning could be applied to AirAsia’s airport. From AirAsia’s perspective, it is hardly economical if anything. For a no-frills airline, having their own runway would be a major improvement. Or will the government or MAHB subsidize the fuel needed to taxi the plane from the new terminal to the runway? These costs needs to be factored in especially in a long term situation. As far as I have heard, the new terminal proposed is “sort-of” faraway from the current runway. Having their own runway near to their own terminal could greatly reduce the costs and again, pass these benefits to the passengers.

Having two airports closed to each other isn’t much of a big problem either. Planes won’t go coliding each other as all planes needs to strictly follow a set of flight paths. Every single turn, ascend and descent is well planned and followed. Again, Dr. M assumes that the pilots might need to pull stunts to avoid each other similar to the stunt did in Pearl Harbor movie. This is airtravel that we’re talking about and not the streets of KL where people just swerve by on every other dark corner. That and the runways are build in parallel with each other. All planes needs to clear a certain height before making their first turn to adjust their flight paths. I think I can safely assume that the planes taking off will be way beyond the 7km or even near either airports when making their turns. You won’t be seeing movie stunts between these two airports.

The main reason of supporting this move is to get away from MAHB’s management. If AirAsia is growing as fast as what was reported, why didn’t MAHB lay out a plan beforehand to support that growth? According to Datuk Tony, MAHB never called AirAsia on this issue. I believe AirAsia is required to pay certain “rent” to use the KLIA space. If these costs can be removed, why not?

From a bias point of view, I would say Dr. M doesn’t want another of his projects to become another white elephant such as Putrajaya. Going against the project is probably the only thing that he could do at his position at the moment. But then again, these are all just opinions. Let us all see how things will unfold in the upcoming events…