This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on March 14, 2018

KUALA LUMPUR: The 60-acre (24.3ha) Subang Aerotech Park in Selangor is expected to attract over RM1 billion in investments, both locally and internationally, supporting over 5,000 jobs within the next five years, said Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) managing director Datuk Badlisham Ghazali.

“With some 70 aerospace companies already based within the Subang aerospace ecosystem, the Subang Aerotech Park will further provide a platform to build the aerospace small and medium enterprise supply chain, creating a complete aerospace ecosystem,” he said in a statement yesterday.

“This is in line with the government’s intention as outlined in the Malaysia Aerospace Industry Blueprint 2030 that aims to make Malaysia the No 1 aerospace nation in Southeast Asia.

“We also expect that these developments will have a positive effect for the aerospace and aviation cluster in our Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) Aeropolis development [in Sepang],” Badlisham added.

Yesterday, a ground-breaking ceremony was held in Subang Aerotech Park for Senior Aerospace Upeca’s built-to-suit manufacturing plant and office facility that will serve its global supply chain. Senior Aerospace Upeca is part of the Senior group of companies — an international manufacturer of high-technology components and systems.

The 178,000 sq ft (16,537 sq m) facility will sit on a seven-acre plot within the park as part of MAHB’s initiative to revitalise the Subang aerospace ecosystem.

It will be developed by Axis Real Estate Investment Trust (Axis-REIT). “This plot has been subleased by MAHB to Axis-REIT for a tenure of 49 years and the construction of the facility will begin in the first half of 2018 and handed over to Senior Aerospace Upeca by year end,” said Badlisham.

He added that MAHB will be looking to complete the development and management of the Subang Aerotech Park based on the same business model.

Meanwhile, Bernama has reported that MAHB is looking to develop a new terminal within the next five years as KLIA and klia2 are running at maximum capacity.

Badlisham said as for now, the airport operator would improve baggage handling and other systems to cater to an additional three to five million passengers at the two airports.

“We are looking at the new terminal to be called KLIA3 at the borders of Runway 3 and 4. We have to make a decision and build within the next five years,” he said.

KLIA recorded 58.5 million passengers in 2017, up 11.2% over 2016. KLIA Main Terminal handled 10.7% more passengers at 28.2 million compared with 2016, while klia2 handled 30.3 million passengers, a growth of 11.6% over 2016.

It was reported that the passenger traffic had exceeded the KLIA’s designed capacity by more than 2% while other airports, such as the Subang Airport, were grappling with over 200% utlisation.