The Hindu Business Line : Malaysia Airports selective in taking up global projects

Kuala Lumpur, July 4 Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad, which is currently involved in development of two airports in India, has said that it is very selective in taking up projects internationally.

“We will look at opportunities depending on the factors such as the airport, country, and partners,” Mr Bashir Ahmad, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad, said.

Handling airports

Talking to a group of journalists from Hyderabad, he said the company had a diversified experience in handling very small to very big airports.

The company manages 39 small and big airports in Malaysia. It is currently engaged in development of greenfield GMR Hyderabad International Airport (GHIAL) at Shamshabad and the Delhi Airport. In both the cases, it floated joint ventures with GMR and some other companies.

Kazakhstan project

“We have recently signed a memorandum of understanding for the development of an airport in Kazakhstan,” he said.

Speaking on the transformation from a typical Government-owned, run airport to a world-class airport at Kuala Lumpur, which was adjudged the World’s Best Airport in the 15-25 million passenger category for two consecutive years, he said the focus had been changed realising the fact that the airport business was in the service sector.

Being a public listed company, we needed to be competitive and profitable, he pointed out.

Infrastructure

Stating that the company would help set up the best of infrastructure, security and fire services at the GHIAL, he said that its role would be in assisting the local partner to run and manage it. He emphasised that the Government support was very crucial in developing infrastructure

The Malaysian company currently training the employees of GHIAL on a variety of aspects that went into the running and maintenance of an airport at its training facility in Penang.

Revenues

The group registered total revenue of 1.147 billion ringgits (Malay currency) in 2006, showing a growth of 3.1 per cent over the 2005 figure.

According to Mr Bashir Ahmad, the aero and non-aero revenue ratio was put at 65:35.

“We would like to push this up to 50:50 in the next two years,” he said.

On the prospects of Hyderabad becoming an international hub, he said there was a huge scope.

“As of now it is more of a destination. It can be a hub domestically and internationally,” he felt.

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