RM8.4mil allocated for KKIA upgrades, RM11mil for Tawau airport

Liew (third from left) receiving a memento from Kamaruzzaman Razali.

KOTA KINABALU: The Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA) will be given a facelift with a RM8.4mil allocation from Malaysia Airports Sdn Bhd (MASB), while Tawau airport will receive RM11mil for the same purpose.

Sabah Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Christina Liew revealed that she was informed of this by the MASB management during a courtesy call led by its senior general manager Kamaruzzaman Razali at her office here on Tuesday (July 25).

The funds channelled falls under the KKIA and Tawau optimisation plans, which the delegation briefed her on.

"I am very happy to hear the good news as it is most timely, given the steady increase of tourists to Sabah after we have reopened our international borders," she said in a statement on Tuesday.

"For KKIA, RM1.4mil will be spent on improving the public toilets at the airport, while the remaining sum will be utilised for other upgrading projects.

"These include resurfacing the runway and upgrading of the commercial lots as well as the public address (PA) system.

"For Tawau Airport, the plan entails building additional toilets, upgrading the check-in area with a proper segregation between international and domestic segments, enlarging the departure lounge, adding more shoplots and covering up the open space for installation of air-conditioning units," she added.

Liew said work is expected to commence this year but the implementation will take some time.

"For instance, building more toilets may take six to eight months," she said.

Kamaruzzaman said KKIA is the second busiest airport in the country in terms of passenger handling.

"It was designed for a capacity of nine million passengers per year.

"Up to June this year, the airport handled 3,299,076 passengers with 28,642 aircraft movements," he said.

Also present during the meeting were Liew's deputy permanent secretary I Mary Malangking, MASB senior manager (engineering) Mohd Sabri Abd Aziz, MASB senior manager (operations) Sunif Naiman and KKIA operations manager Hassim Duman.