MALAYSIA. A new MYR140 million (US$37 million) airport proposed for Tioman will boost tourism on the duty free island once it is completed in two years, Transport Minister Datuk Seri Chan Kong Choy said this week.
He said work on the airport, situated between Kampung Paya and Kampung Genting, would start early next year. The small Tioman Island in the South China Sea is one of the tourist industry’s rising stars in Asia and was made famous in the filming of the movie “South Pacific.” Currently it is mainly a destination for Singaporean visitors.
Chan said with the new airport more regional airlines would start services to the island. Currently a boat trip from Mersing in Malaysia, takes about 90 minutes. From Singapore Tioman is about four and a half hours. Pelangi Air and Berjaya Air both fly to the island daily from Kuala Lumpur. Currently only a few flights from the Seletar Airfield in Singapore exist.
“We expect airlines, especially from Singapore and other member countries of ASEAN, to start services there once the airport is ready,” he told reporters after witnessing Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad officiating at the ground-breaking ceremony.
Chan said the government was in the final stages of short listing the contractors to carry out the project.
“We have short listed a few contractors and the Finance Ministry will make a decision soon on the company which will be entrusted with the responsibility.”
He added that work on the airport would start “not later than January 2004” at the end of the monsoon season.
On the island’s present airport in Kampung Tekek, Chan said the government would make a decision later whether to cease its operations or let it continue as it was.
