April 19th, 2011
Kota Kinabalu International Airport Expansion Plan
Without being absolutely specific to expansion plans, the forum SkyscraperCity has a current thread on the airport that was begun back in April, 2007. It is richly illustrated. As well, there are other archived threads that cite the airport — just do a search at the site.
Kota Kinabalu Airport in Malaysia to Become Aviation Hub
04 March 2011
Malaysia has revealed plans to promote the Kota Kinabalu International Airport in Sabah as its second aviation hub, following Japan’s open skies arrangement with the country.
The arrangement will enable more flights and airlines from Malaysia to Tokyo through Kota Kinabalu.
Malaysian officials met with their Japanese counterparts to finalise the arrangement on increasing flights and routes between the Narita International Airport in Tokyo and Malaysia from 2013.
The maximum quota of landings and take-offs at Narita have been raised to 270,000 a year.
Malaysian carriers would also be able to fly to Narita more frequently if slots for landings and departures at the airport increased gradually before 2013.
Currently, Malaysia Airlines has daily flights to Narita from the Kuala Lumpur International Airport while Air Asia X operates flights three times a week to Haneda.
Is there a current expansion project? I have read that the airport was deeply involved in one back in 2009, but apart from the attendant activity that might be required to realize the aspirations to become an aviation hub as explained in the article above, I am unaware of anything else. Even the Wikipedia entry on the airport only speaks of past expansion project plans — that section badly requires some updating, for they are discussed as if they are current.
There is an “upgrading program” currently in effect at the airport, but I do not know if it could be termed an expansion. Details are in this .pdf document, if anyone is interested.
Perhaps this resolves the mystery:
Sabah govt unhappy with delay in airport project
September 3, 2010
KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah government is unhappy over the prolonged delay in the completion of the Kota Kinabalu International Airport expansion project.
Chief Minister Datuk Musa Aman said yesterday that Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Joseph Pairin Kitingan, who is Infrastructure Development Minister, would write to the Transport Ministry over the matter.
He said the delay was over the completion date in extending the airport runway and taxiway.
“The project contractor recently asked for an extension of the completion for the fourth time and it has now been pushed to March 18 next year,” Musa said after chairing the state action council meeting here yesterday.
Musa and other state officials were earlier briefed by Malaysia Airports Bhd officials and the project’s consultants about the progress on the expansion work.
He said among the reason cited for the delay was inclement weather conditions in the state capital.
Meanwhile, Musa said more than 44% or 1,699 of the 3,830 projects earmarked for Sabah under the Ninth Malaysia Plan had been completed so far while another 2,041 projects were being implemented.
He said more than 77% or RM15.8bil of the RM20.3bil allocated to the state for the five-year plan had been utilised so far.
“The figures show that the various implementation agencies have been playing their roles effectively,” he added.
On another note, Musa said the state government’s 23,000 employees would be receiving a special payment of RM500 before Hari Raya in line with a similar move by the federal government.
He said the special payment would cost the state more than RM9.7mil.
I think this is the final word on the matter:
KKIA expansion set for December completion
The planned, 1.4 billion Malaysian ringgit (US$451.6 million) expansion of Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA), which has been delayed by two years and eight months due to the contractor’s financial constraints, will be completed in December 2011.
Work on the project, which started in April 2006, involves the land reclamation for an 800m runway extension, increasing the total length to 3.8km, as well as reinforcement of the runway, construction of a parallel taxiway, a new air traffic control tower, more remote parking bays, a new 110,000 square-metre passenger terminal, a terminal for low-cost carriers and an additional three aerobridges, increasing the number to 15.
When work is completed, KKIA’s annual passenger-handling capacity will be increased by 4 million, to 9 million.
Transport minister Kong Cho Ha attributed the delay to the fact that construction work could only be carried out at night for three to four hours when the airport is closed, between 1am and 6am.
There are some nice “before and after” airport photos down on this page.
The full expansion plan has clearly been a many-year project.
Landing At Kota Kinabalu
Uploaded by thienzieyung on Dec 27, 2008
Landing at Kota Kinabalu International Airport (BKI) on runway 02 on board Malaysia Airlines flight MH 2608 from Labuan (LBU). This was the afternoon flight. Here you can see the islands, sea and also the extension process of BKI’s runway.
Recorded Tuesday, 16th December 2008
