KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) hopes Budget 2022 will include incentives and relief to restore air connectivity, which has been greatly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The airport operator said such support will enable continuous growth in the cargo and logistics sector to fulfil the National Transport Policy 2019-30 that aims to make Malaysia the preferred logistics gateway to Asia.
“With the support, passenger airlines can restart operations once international border restrictions are lifted, while existing or new freighter airlines can aim for long-range connectivity for cargo movement,” MAHB told Bernama.
It said incentives on landing fees and flight frequency will encourage more freighter airlines to utilise Kuala Lumpur International Airport as their “hub and spoke” network, and at the same time, attract more passenger narrow-body aircraft to operate via the airport to accommodate the growth of e-commerce shipments within the Southeast Asian market.
“These government efforts will help prevent cargo leakages to competitor airports, such as Singapore (Changi airport) and Bangkok (Suvarnabhumi airport), by increasing volume throughput via KLIA.”
MAHB said it has been gearing up for recovery amid the gradual resumption of air travel both domestically and globally, and hopes that the government will further crank up efforts to boost its position as a top global airport operator when the aviation industry picks up again.
It is also hoping that Budget 2022 will provide support for non-aeronautical business partners and retailers.
“Due to the severe decrease in passenger movement and restricted international travel during the pandemic, retailers’ sales have been badly affected, especially those of duty-free businesses.
“Therefore, it is equally important for the government to support retailers at our airports and help them mitigate the losses suffered during the crisis.”
Among its proposed solutions is amending the guidelines for travellers under the Customs Act 1967 to attract visitors to shop and drive up sales in Malaysia through the revision of standard operating procedures, such as reducing the duration of intention to visit the country or after an absence from Malaysia to not less than 24 hours from the current 72.
It said other revisions include increasing the quota of items, including alcoholic beverages (2l from the current 1l per traveller) and tobacco (two outer cartons from the current one per traveller for arrivals).
MAHB also proposed that the government expand duty-free operations to the domestic airside at its international airports, namely KLIA, klia2, Penang airport, Kota Kinabalu airport and Kuching airport.
“By providing these support mechanisms to (a wider range of) duty-free retailers, we foresee an increase in government revenue via higher tax collection, while retailers can clear excess duty-free products and improve inventory.”
Currently, gazetted duty-free zones cover only the international airside.
Budget 2022 is scheduled to be tabled in Parliament on October 29. – Bernama, October 17, 2021
