KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 20 — Senai International Airport, which is owned and operated by Senai Airport Terminal Services Sdn Bhd (SATSSB), today hit its latest milestone of handling four million passengers in a single year.

This also means that the airport has reached its maximum capacity of four million passengers per annum and SATSSB plans to invest RM20 million to expand the terminal building.

In a statement, the airport operator said the milestone was achieved after it received the four millionth passenger Lim Seoh Boey, who was travelling with her three children and arrived at the airport at 10:50am via AirAsia flight AK 6051 from Kuala Lumpur.

Lim was welcomed with a special celebration led by Deputy Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Muhammad Bakhtiar Wan Chik, accompanied by Johor's State Tourism, Women & Family Development Committee chairman Liow Cai Tung and SATSSB chief executive officer Md Derick Basir.

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Md Derick said the passenger volume for full year 2019 would hit a total of 4.2 million, a significant increase from the 3.5 million passengers handled in 2018.

“The growth is mainly attributed by the increased capacity created by the introduction of new routes and the additional flight frequencies to existing routes such as Kuala Lumpur, Penang, and Seoul,” he added.

On the terminal expansion, Md Derick said the RM20 million project was expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2021 and would boost the terminal building's annual capacity by one million passengers to five million passengers.

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The project includes the extension of the existing arrival and departure halls towards the south of the existing terminal building.

Key elements include the construction of four new departure and boarding gates, additional new seating area, a covered walkway connecting to aircraft parking bays, installation of additional baggage handling system and installation of escalators and elevators to link the existing terminal building to the new area.

“Senai Airport handles an average of over 11,500 passengers and 110 flight movements daily with 80 per cent of its operations and passengers contributed by AirAsia,” he said.

Currently, the airport is connected to seven international and 12 domestic destinations operated by five airlines — AirAsia, Malaysia Airlines, Firefly, Malindo Air and Jin Air. — Bernama