Thursday, December 30, 2010

KKIA terminal expected to be fully-operational by end of January

Kota Kinabalu: The extended Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA) terminal is expected to be fully-operational by end of January, leaving only works on the runway to be completed.

Transport Minister Datuk Seri Kong Cho Ha when visiting the airport to check on the progress of its expansion, said works on resurfacing the existing runway and its extension from 2,988 metres to 3,780 metres is expected to take about a year's time to finish, and will commence around end of next month too.

"The resurfacing is to patch up some of the potholes, but it will take a long time because it's more difficult, as the existing runway will be used the whole day maybe until midnight, and the contractor may only have a window period of about four hours in the middle of the night to work on it.

"It is also very time consuming, as the total resurfacing of runway consists of three layers and one day they can only do about 40 metres, and that 40 metres you have to do three times ... so it will take about a year," he said, after the inspection accompanied by Department of Civil Aviation director-general Datuk Azharudin Abd Rahman.

He said once it is fully completed, there will be no time constraint and the runway can be used almost 24 hours.

AirAsia which is currently operating at Terminal Two, is also expected to shift its operation into the main terminal here by next year, once everything is in place.

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