IPOH, Oct 16 — Datuk Seri Nizar Jamaluddin today said the state government will not build a new international airport in Perak.

The State Investment and Corridor Development Committee chairman said the state government will instead upgrade the Sultan Azlan Shah Airport to a regional airport which would allow planes with a higher capacity to land.

"To build a new airport is not easy. We can say we want to build a new airport in Seri Iskandar or Bagan Serai, but the cost to build is high and needs a lot of approvals,” he told reporters after attending the annual Malaysian International Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MICCI) Perak Branch luncheon.

"We are not expecting flights from European countries. We just want to have flights from regional countries such as China, India, Hong Kong and Thailand.

"In order to achieve that, we just have to extend the current airport runway and upgrade the infrastructure,” added Nizar.

Nizar said the current airport only has a 2km runway and needs an additional 850m-long runway to allow the landing and take-off of bigger capacity flights.

"We only need to add a 500m-stretch runway on the left side and 350m on the right side to land flights like Airbus and Boeing 747 airplanes,” he said.

Nizar said the state government is willing to pay compensation for the houses affected when the extension of the airport is done.

"Based on our initial calculation, let’s say 200 houses are affected and we need to pay for each house RM1 million. The total will only be RM200 million, which is just a small fraction when compared to the cost of building a new airport.

"We haven’t talked to the house owners yet, but we are very sure they will accept the compensation as they are tired of the sound of flights for the past 30 years. We will also find new land for them,” he said.

Meanwhile, MICCI Perak branch chairman Datuk Lim Si Boon said the main concern for business entities is to have frequent flights.

"At the moment, we just have three to four flights. We would love to have more.

"Of course, in the long term, we need to have a new airport, but for the short term approach, the upgrading of the current airport will be helpful,” he said.