Seven investors are expressing interest in investing in the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) Aeropolis, according to Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (MAHB).
“There are seven opportunities to do the final negotiations during the Paris Air Show on Monday,” Datuk Badlisham Ghazali, managing director of airport operator MAHB, told local media recently after the unveiling of the newly refurbished toilets at KLIA.
Badlisham said the interested capitalists are mostly European companies in the aeronautics industry.
He said MAHB would promote the KLIA Aeropolis during its participation in the Paris Air Show scheduled for next week, noting that the proposed infrastructure development is gaining attention “because it is a real project with a comprehensive development plan.”
Launched May of last year, the KLIA Aeropolis project is a massive ecosystem development that involves key clusters of air cargo and logistics activities, aerospace parks, conference and events halls, and areas for leisure activities.
The project, consisting of more than 100 square kilometers in area, is one of the strategic pillars of MAHB’s five-year business plan, Runway to Success 2020.
Of the total development area, about 60% is designated for airport and aeronautical use, at the heart of which is the KLIA, the company said earlier. KLIA is Malaysia’s main international airport, located in Sepang, south of Kuala Lumpur.
The rest of the area will include a business park, an aerospace park, a logistics park, the aeronautical support zone, as well as a leisure and recreational zone.
Badlisham earlier said the KLIA Aeropolis aimed to facilitate a more cohesive KLIA cargo community, with a long-term annual forecast of between 2.5 million tonnes and 3 million tonnes by 2050, from about 726,000 tonnes at present.
“It will serve as the core of a Malaysia Airports’ air cargo and logistics ecosystem that extends to Penang, Sabah and Sarawak,” he said.
Photo: Allen
