KLIA2 opens for business, Malindo Air first customer

Staff of Malindo Air welcoming passengers at KLIA2 Friday. IZZRAFIQ ALIAS/The Star

SEPANG : Malindo Air flight OD1027 from Kota Kinabalu, carrying 110 passengers, made a historic touch down at the spanking new RM4bil KLIA2 here.

Being the first aircraft to land at the world's largest purpose-built low-cost terminal at 12.10am Friday, Flight OD1027 was given a grand welcome with water cannons spraying the aircraft.

With KLIA2 officially commencing operations, Deputy Transport Minister Datuk Ab Aziz Kaprawi said everything had been running smoothly and according to schedule.

"This is a historic moment with the arrival of the first airplane in the new airport," he said.

The first flight to take off from KLIA2, which was scheduled at 1.20am, was the Manila-bound Cebu Pacific Airways flight 5J502.

However, Malaysia Airports managing director Tan Sri Bashir Ahmad said the flight was delayed as the aircraft arrived late from Manila.

As Flight 5J502 only arrived at 2am, it was then scheduled to depart at 3.15am.

Bashir gave the assurance that "the whole airport is safe."

Anchor tenant AirAsia is expected to move its operations from the low-cost terminal by May 9. Airlines now operating out of KLIA2 are Malindo Air, Cebu Pacific Airways, Lion Air and Tiger Air.

Over 7,000 passengers are expected to fly in and out of the airport daily for the initial phase of the operations.

This number is expected to increase to 50,000 from May 9 onwards with AirAsia's move to the new airport.