KOTA KINABALU – The Tawau airport should be expanded, and its status upgraded to an international one to tap the great economic potential when international borders reopen.
The relocation of Indonesia’s capital from Jakarta to East Kalimantan will also create a hive of activities in the Brunei Darussalam–Indonesia–Malaysia–Philippines East Asean Growth Area, or BIMP-EAGA.
These are the reasons why Tawau MP Datuk Christina Liew is pushing for Tawau airport’s expansion and for its status to be upgraded to an international airport since 2018.
“In 2019, as tourism, culture and environment minister, I led a delegation from the ministry to meet with the relevant federal ministry people over the matter. However, our application for expansion of the Tawau Airport was turned down.
“I urge the federal government to review our application in anticipation of the influx of tourists to Sabah once international borders are reopened,” the former Sabah deputy chief minister said in a statement today.
Liew said Tawau Airport has the capacity to accommodate the A320 aircraft, which was flown by AirAsia prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The Tawau Airport’s passenger handling capacity is 1.4 million passengers. However, the airport exceeded this capacity in 2018 when it handled almost 1.7 million passengers, and by 2019, the figure had reached 2.4 million passengers,” she added.
Liew, who is also Api Api’s rep, said the business community in Tawau is awaiting the temporary suspension of flights from Tawau to Tarakan (in North Kalimantan) to be lifted, with the necessary standard operating procedures (SOPs) in place.
“We hope the revival of this flight service is also being considered in the government’s economic recovery plan,” she said.
She explained that with Indonesia’s capital moving to Kalimantan, Sabah’s road connectivity and air links must be improved to tap the great economic potentials of this development, in the context of BIMP-EAGA.
For ease of communication, the Tawau MP expressed optimism that the federal government will consider the need to upgrade the 30km road from the Kalabakan district to Samarinda, which is the largest city and the capital of East Kalimantan.
In retrospect, she said that as early as 2003, the Sabah government had made efforts to explore the prospects of economic cooperation between Sabah and East Kalimantan in the areas of forging closer trade ties and promoting investments in agriculture, infrastructure, and tourism.
Liew also said that the business fraternity has been asking whether the federal government has any plans to re-establish direct air links between Kota Kinabalu and Balikpapan, the gateway to East Kalimantan.
The first direct Kota Kinabalu-Balikpapan flight service was inaugurated by Malaysia Airlines (MAS) in July 2003 to promote cross-border trading between Sabah and East Kalimantan. And in 2012, MASwings started its operations from Kota Kinabalu to Balikpapan but these were stopped after 2014. – The Vibes, November 11, 2021
