At the signing ceremony, transport minister Loke Siew Fook said the agreements cover MAHB operating, managing, maintaining and developing 39 airports nationwide.

“Today is a historical day due to this signing between the government and MAHB.

“It will give MAHB enough time and room to make more strategic investments and decisions to upgrade our airports.

“Some of the salient points in the new OAs are that we give flexibility to MAHB to invest in terms of capacity building and upgrading of our airports based on the investment recovery model,” he told reporters.

Loke said one of the biggest hurdles MAHB faced every year was the lack of development funding from the government.

He said the company had to apply for funding every year from the economy and finance ministries, and was not always successful in getting the funds.

He said there are many smaller airports that need to be upgraded periodically, such as in Sabah and Sarawak, which have a lot of potential but are currently not operating at their full capacity.

“We need to upgrade them as soon as possible so that we can tap into the tourism potential,” he said.

Besides the OAs, the government and MAHB signed a land lease agreement, which had been approved by the Cabinet in principle in February last year.

Loke also said the transport ministry is monitoring the progress of Kuala Lumpur International Airport’s aerotrain project and expects it to be completed before the end of the year.

“We are monitoring the progress and we want them to complete the project on time,” he said.

French rolling stock manufacturer Alstom Transport Systems (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd has been appointed the project’s original equipment manufacturer and also serves as the project coordination lead.