KUALA LUMPUR (March 14): 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 with regard to news reports on KLIA3," it said in a statement. "There are no immediate plans to build a third terminal for KLIA as stated by several leading newspapers today."

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

MAHB, however, clarified that Badlisham was referring to the "KLIA Main Terminal expansion, modification and systems upgrade that are being planned and slated to be built in the next five years".

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

This means that 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 and 20 million more passengers.

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

At 4pm, shares in MAHB were up five sen or 0.57% at RM8.86, raising its market capitalisation to RM14.70 billion.