(Left and below) File photos of Penang International Airport in Bayan Lepas taken in 1970.
LONG before the roar of modern jetliners, the whirr of propellers once echoed across Bayan Lepas as Penang made its entry into aviation history.
In 1935, the Straits Settlements government opened the Bayan Lepas Aerodrome to connect Malaya with the rest of the British Empire.
Penang Heritage Trust president Clement Liang said this when relating the history of the Penang International Airport (PIA).
Built on acres of mudflats reclaimed along the island’s southern coast, he said it was one of the earliest modern civil airfields in the region, replacing a smaller landing ground in Gelugor.
The airport’s inaugural moment came when a silver-hulled Imperial Airways Handley Page Arethusa glided in from Rangoon (Yangon), marking Penang’s place on the prestigious London-Karachi-Calcutta-Rangoon-Penang-Singapore-Batavia (Jakarta)-Darwin-Brisbane route, he added.
Liang said the 13-day journey linked Britain to Australia, the precursor to what became known as the famous “Kangaroo Route”.
“The airfield’s establishment was championed by then governor Sir Cecil Clementi, who envisioned Penang as part of a network of imperial air mail stations stretching from Europe to the Pacific.
“The facilities were a single metalled runway, hangars, a control tower and a small passenger lounge,” he said.
Yet for travellers in the 1930s, it represented the cutting edge of technology and adventure, he added.
Although Penang airport was often cited as the oldest in the country, Liang said aviation historians had said Taiping’s Tekah Aerodrome (opened in 1929) and Alor Setar’s early airfield preceded it.
“What distinguished Bayan Lepas is its continuous evolution, surviving wars, colonial transitions and decades of modernisation to remain a living gateway,” said Liang.
He said that during the Japanese Occupation from 1941 to 1945, the aerodrome was seized and expanded for military purposes.
“Its position along the Straits of Malacca made it strategically vital and a frequent target for Allied bombers.
“After the war, the Royal Air Force undertook repairs before returning control to civil authorities,” he added.
Liang said commercial flights resumed by the late 1940s, under Malayan Airways linking Penang with Singapore and Kuala Lumpur.
The post-war years, he said, cemented Penang’s role as the northern aviation hub of the peninsula.
Liang said the airfield was reborn as PIA in 1979, with a new terminal and a runway that handled Boeing and Airbus jets.
The upgrades of 1998 and 2012 expanded capacity to 6.5 million passengers annually.
“After the first Imperial Airways landing, the same airfield is once again undergoing transformation,” added Liang.
The ongoing RM1.2bil expansion project will more than double its size, reaffirming Penang’s long-held role as a crossroads of commerce and culture.
