This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on March 15, 2018

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) has clarified that there are no plans yet to develop a third terminal at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA).

“We wish to clarify a misunderstanding regarding news reports on KLIA3,” it said in a statement yesterday. “There are no immediate plans to build a third terminal for KLIA as stated by several leading newspapers today (Wednesday).”

The news reports quoted MAHB managing director Datuk Badlisham Ghazali as saying the airport operator plans to develop a new terminal within five years, as the KLIA and adjacent klia2 are running at maximum capacity.

MAHB, however, clarifies that Badlisham was referring to the “KLIA Main Terminal expansion, modification and systems upgrade being planned and slated to be built in five years”.

It added that while the 20-year- old Main Terminal is nearing its capacity of 30 million passengers per annum (mppa), the combined capacity together with klia2 brings overall capacity to 75 mppa currently.

This means the airport as a whole still has “ample capacity” to cater for immediate future traffic growth, it said.

“At the moment, we are committed to invest in upgrades and expansion of the current terminals to increase capacity. Then only can we talk about a brand new terminal — KLIA3 — but that is decades away,” said MAHB.

For the next five years, it said plans are underway to upgrade and expand its existing Main Terminal building to add further capacity of between 15 million and 20 million passengers.

It is also looking to upgrade its baggage handling system and the aerotrain, besides increasing efficiency of boarding gates and apron parking.