Budget 2023: High hopes for Tawau Airport

5 October 2022

By Wartawan Nabalu News

KUALA LUMPUR: Tawau MP Datuk Christina Liew hopes there is something positive in store for the Tawau Airport in Budget 2023.

She said it is high time to upgrade the terminal building and its facilities which include 11 check-in counters, given that the airport is the second largest airport in Sabah after the Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA).

The former State Minister of Tourism, Culture and Environment recalled that in 2018, the Airport recorded 1.64 million passengers movement, exceeding its capacity of 1.4 million passengers.

"In 2019, the Tawau Airport handled almost 1.9 million passengers. Although there was a decline in passenger and flight movements at the Airport in 2020 and 2021 (due to the Covid-19 pandemic), statistics indicate an upward trend in the first nine months this year for both movements, compared with last year.

"As of today, the recovery growth in terms of daily passenger movement is to the tune of 73pc, according to the Airport Management, and this is an encouraging sign.

"I am made to understand that the percentage is based on the difference in the number of passengers for the period from January to September 27, 2019, and for the period from January to September 27 this year, and that is 375,439," said Liew who is attending the current parliamentary sitting here.

From January to September 2022, passenger movements recorded a figure of 995,717 against a total of 404,877 passengers for the previous year (2021). Similarly, flight movements totalled 5330 from January to September 2022 versus a total of 4920 flights for 2021.

The MP has consistently pushed for the expansion of the Tawau Airport since 2018, and efforts included leading a ministerial delegation from Sabah to meet the Federal Minister of Transport when Pakatan Harapan (PH) was in power.

The Airport first commenced operations as a domestic airport in 2001.