He said with latest passenger movements increasing by 8% in 2017 compared with the year before, the numbers are expected to soar this year.
The airport is designed to take 6.5 million passengers a year, following an upgrade in 2012. The design is supposed to last until 2020.
Najib had announced a plan to upgrade the airport in his Budget 2018 speech last October, but did not give any target date for its completion.
In providing statistics of passenger movements (arrivals/departures), Lim said a total of 7.2 million passengers were recorded in 2017, compared with 6.6 million the year before.
He said most of the passengers were on international flights, with data showing such passengers increased by 10.38%, while domestic passenger movements went up by 6.27%.
“This shows our tourism is healthy and spirited. The numbers also reflect my urgent call for the airport to be upgraded. I hope Najib would hasten the expansion,” Lim told reporters here today.
Recently, Qatar Airways announced that it would fly direct from Doha to Penang this year. The flight would be PIA’s first long-haul flight in many years.
In his 2018 Budget speech, Najib announced that the PIA would be upgraded to enable the passenger capacity to be increased by almost double from the existing 6.5 million passengers per year to 12 million.
Besides PIA, he also announced plans to upgrade Langkawi International Airport.
A new airport in Mukah, Sarawak and the expansion of the Kota Bharu and Sandakan airports were also in the pipeline, Najib had proposed.
He said a study to open an airport on the island of Tioman was also being considered.
Liow confirms Penang international airport capacity to double