Senai International Airport
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From Johor Bahru Directory
The Senai International Airport, officially known as Sultan Ismail International Airport (Malay: Lapangan Terbang Antarabangsa Sultan Ismail), is located in Senai, a small town about 30 km from the Johor Bahru city center. With a capacity of 4.5 million passengers and 100,000 tonnes of cargo per annum, there are plans to double the passenger capacity in the long term, and to turn the airport into a major cargo hub. Recent expansions and upgrades include lengthening of the runway to 3,800 meters and building a parallel taxiway to increase runway capacity. Malaysia Airlines and AirAsia operate some 220 flights a week out of the airport (as of June 2010).[1] The airport is also a secondary hub for Firely.
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2. Growth potential: Opened in 1974, the Senai International Airport was built to prevent "leakage" of passenger and cargo traffic from Johor into Singapore. However, it never fulfilled its purpose, due to the limited number of flights and airlines at the airport, and thus remained primarily a domestic airport. With the South Johor region being developed, Senai International Airport might yet have a chance to become a major air transport hub in Malaysia.
In 2003, Senai Airport Terminal Services Sdn Bhd (SATS), the first Malaysian independent airport operator, took over the management of the airport from Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (MAHB). Since the bought-over, passenger traffic has more than doubled in recent years and cargo traffic has increased significantly. The number of flights at the airport has also doubled, due to efforts to attract new airlines and getting existing airlines to increase flights.
To attract people from Singapore to use the Senai International Airport, SATS built the City Lounge at the Kotaraya Bus Terminal in Johor Bahru to provide bus services, both to the airport and to the Kranji MRT Station in Singapore, thus increasing the accessibility of the airport. Under future plans, a new Keretapi Tanah Melayu (KTM) mainline railway station is to be located at the airport, helping to increase ground interconnectivity for the airport's passengers. Currently, no rail service is provided at the airport.
An RM80-million 173,33-sq ft stand-alone and external airport mall, with 29 retail outlets and 30,000 sq ft of piazza area, was opened in July 2010. There are also plans for a cineplex and a digital complex.[1] As of June 2009, there were RM2.5 billion worth of ongoing projects at the Senai International Airport, including the RM2-billion Senai High Tech Park, as well as the Free Zone Logistics and Aerospace Industrial Park. SATS has 1,120 hectares of land surrounding the Senai airport.[1]
