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ALOR SETAR: Kedah Menteri Besar Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor said today that the state needed RM1 billion to RM2.5 billion in loans from the federal government to launch its RM6.8 billion Kulim airport plan.
He said that if Putrajaya did not have those funds, the state would consider turning to the private sector to complete the project.
The proposed airport, codenamed KXP, will be located on a 1,700-hectare site near Sungai Petani and is intended to handle 15 million passengers per year. The state had predicted that its first flights would take off starting in 2024.
Sanusi said today that airport experts have found KXP to be a viable project as it would meet passenger and cargo demand from the nearby Kulim Hi-Tech Park and a future industrial park spanning nearby 6,000 acres.
“The project will greatly benefit Penang and Perak, pushing the economic center that has often been centered on the west coast of the state towards the center of Kedah,” he said today at a press conference here.
According to Sanusi, Aeroport de Paris Ingenierie (ADPI), a French airport consultant who has overseen the construction of 40 other airports around the world, had already conducted a study on the airport.
Sanusi said the International Air Transport Association (IATA) also released a report on future air traffic demand through 2050, representing a better case for the airport’s construction.
He added that Penang International Airport, currently the largest airport by passenger volume in the northern region, had only one runway and no more land to add another runway.
By comparison, Sanusi said, the proposed Kulim international airport would have two runways when complete and provision for two more runways by 2050 to meet future demand.
