He said for the next 12 months, airport authorities will be busy trying to clear up more space in the check-in area for departing passengers.
“The three-phase approach will start within the next 12 months.
“We will be clearing out some of the shops. Some of the airline offices you see downstairs will be moved upstairs. So we can then broaden the check-in area all the way to the entrance of the airport itself.
“This will give more space for departing passengers to come in and congregate.
“The reconfiguration will start at the end of February. After Chinese New Year.
“That has already been committed,” he told reporters here after a press conference on the inaugural Qatar Airways flight from Doha to Penang.
Qatar Airways will fly thrice weekly from Doha to Penang on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. The frequency will subsequently be increased to four times weekly, effective July 1.
Also in the pipeline is a new wing for the PIA, Badlisham said, stating that “it looks as though we will have a domestic and international wing for the airport”.
“It will help us manage traffic better,” he said, adding that these will all still be under one roof.
Some reconfiguration will also take place on the airport apron, where the planes are parked, he said.
Badlisham pointed out that while there was no space for additional runways, what could be done to improve movements on the runway was the airspace management.
“There is no space for runways. We are okay with 20, 21 aircraft movements an hour. Beyond that, it requires the Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) to complete its airspace management study, because it is about up there and not down here.
“If there is better management of airspace in terms of landing and take off, we can do a lot more.
“We can do 25, 26 or 27 movements an hour, which means more planes can use the current runway,” he said.
Badlisham said that the Immigration Department’s recent announcement of an additional 11 personnel at the PIA will really help in terms of clearing passengers who are arriving or departing.
This has yielded positive results with most counters being manned during peak periods.
He further stated that the airport authorities and the department were in the midst of reconfiguring the immigration counters as well as the technology required to serve both arriving and departing passengers to help clear passengers quickly.
When asked on whether the airport expansion can be completed in time for Visit Malaysia 2020, Badlisham said this will be possible for the enhancement and optimisation they are working on, which do not require major construction.
“Construction will take a bit longer, but it does not mean we cannot open certain parts of the wing when it is ready. We cannot wait for the construction to be over and only then open,” he said.
Also in the works is a multi-storey car park, with an additional 3,000 parking bays, he added.
Prime Minister Najib Razak 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 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 said.
He said a study to open an airport on the island of Tioman was also being considered.