“ENOUGH had been said. It is time for action now.”
That is the response from Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow to the tweet by AirAsia Group chief executive officer Tony Fernandes who said the Penang International Airport is horrible and felt sorry for the Penang government that despite having done a good job on tourism, but yet could not expand (the airport).
“This is my brief response. Tweet is meant to be short,” Chow said in response to a reporter’s question after giving a press conference on his site visit to Sia Boey Rejuvenation Project in George Town today.
In his first tweet yesterday, Tony wrote: Penang airport is horrible. I feel sorry for the state Government. They have done such a good job on tourism. Yet we can’t expand. And queues are horrible as airport poorly designed. Zero plane for LCC. So many LCC airlines now. And airport tax is RM75. Shocking.
About 26 minutes later, he tweeted again. “Something has to be done with airports. Penang a mess and over crowded. Kota Kinabalu full and an Empty beautiful terminal 2. Klia well we all know about that. And the management of malaysian airports …..”
AirAsia yesterday issued a travel advisory asking those departing PIA to leave earlier due to “increased airport congestion”.
On July 3, Chow had expressed the hope that the expansion of the Penang airport could be carried out as soon as possible following the approval obtained by the Malaysian Airports Holdings Berhad from the Finance Ministry.
“We are concerned with the commencement and completion of the airport (expansion). It is best that we leave it to the relevant authorities to deal with it,” Chow told a press conference then.
He had said the airport recorded 7.79 million passenger movement last year, beyond its 6.5 million capacity per annum.
Chow said the state welcomed the expansion plan to increase the capacity to 12 million passenger movement per annum.
Chow also told pressmen today that the state would submit a letter latest by Monday to Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad to seek funding for its Penang Island Link and proposed LRT projects.
Story by K.H. Ong
Pix by Adleena Rahayu Ahmad Radzi
Video by Law Suun Ting