KUALA LUMPUR (July 17): Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) is partnering IER Group to co-design a proof of concept on digital automation process that provides profiling of passengers and destinations, for one of the four international airports in Malaysia.

“We hope that this will be a successful implementation with the onboarding of our strategic partners which could potentially result in a development of a joint intellectual property,” MAHB chief strategy officer Azli Mohamed said in a statement today.

IER is the French subsidiary of the Bolloré Group and is involved in the design, manufacturing and marketing of solutions for passenger transport networks.

Earlier today, the airport operator signed Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with four major aviation players — Daher, ExecuJet, IER and XPeranti and Sigfox — at the Farnborough International Airshow in the UK.

Azli said the partnerships with Daher and ExecuJet are part of its Subang Airport regeneration initiative.

“Earlier this year, we initiated the Subang Airport regeneration initiative by partnering with several major aerospace and industry players such as Axis REIT Real Estate Investment Trust, Senior Aerospace UPECA and Skyways Technics as a catalyst for the Subang Aerotech Park development," he said.

"This further regeneration of the Subang Airport ecosystem that also houses Spirit AeroSystems, Airbus Helicopters Malaysia, GE Aviation and Global Turbine Asia-Safran Helicopter Engines, is expected to create a spill-over effect into KLIA Aeropolis in the future.

"Therefore, by partnering Daher and ExecuJet, which is part of the Luxaviation Group, we hope to boost the current airport ecosystems and provide more solutions to the industry,” he added.

“We selected Subang Airport as our Southeast Asia hub for all maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) activities due to its centralised location, high traffic and ease of doing business," Graeme Duckworth, executive vice-president MRO services of Luxaviation Group said.

"The existing facility attracts clients from Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong, Australia and China and by expanding our presence, we will be able to offer an even greater service to a larger number of clients," he added.

Meanwhile, MAHB, XPeranti and Sigfox have entered into a collaborative arrangement on its Internet of Things technology and solutions in Malaysia.

"The partnership with IER and XPeranti and Sigfox will be the kickstart of the co-creation framework that would translate in passengers experiencing the enhanced services that are automated and digitalised. We are embarking on the Airports 4.0 digital transformation journey and today’s collaborations formed are timely,” said Azli.

MAHB shares closed one sen or 0.11% lower at RM8.84, with 5.37 million shares done, bringing it a market capitalisation of RM14.67 billion.