New LCCT departure hall opens

Wednesday March 18, 2009

SEPANG: The new international departure hall at the Low-Cost Carrier Terminal opens today with the first flight to Guangzhou, China leaving at 5.50am.

The new hall can accommodate 3,200 passengers compared to 600 at the old one.

Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad senior general manager (operation services) Datuk Azmi Murad said the number of international travellers was growing rapidly with the introduction of AirAsia's new long-haul destinations, including to London, Perth, Gold Coast and Melbourne.

"The number of domestic passengers for 2008 were 5,050,693 while international passengers were 5,087,859," he told reporters when giving a media tour at the hall here yesterday.

Better facilities: Azmi taking the media on a tour of the new international departure hall at the LCCT in Sepang.

However, he said, international passengers were expected to grow and make up 60% of the total in the next two years.

Azmi said the expansion project, which cost about RM124mil, would increase terminal maximum capacity by 50% from the current 10 million passengers per annum (ppa) to 15 million by 2011.

"In order to cope with the growth, immigration counters, including the auto gate lanes, will also be increased to 45 from 18," he said.

He said there was also an increase of 10 boarding gates for international departure compared to eight.

"Other new facilities include 12 shower rooms, five baby changing rooms, one smoking room and four lifts and escalators," he said.

He said passengers could also expect faster baggage delivery with the expansion of two carousels to six.

On parking facilities, he said, there was an additional of 1,500 parking bays. "The number of retail outlets has been increased to 28 from the present seven with an additional six food and beverages outlets," he said.

On the old departure hall, Azmi said it would be closed from today for renovation.

On what would happen to the LCCT when the new LCCT at the KL International Airport is completed in 2011, Azmi said: "It can be converted into a cargo terminal but we will decide later."

This article is a verbatim copy of the original article from The Star.