singapore hotel: Tourist boom fuels rush for bigger, better airports in Asia

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“China is building over 100 airports, India is building over 60 airports and Indonesia will also have to follow suit with investments in its infrastructure,” said De Lavigne, who closely tracks Asia’s aviation industry.

Upgrades of existing airports could cost an additional US$25 billion (A$26.8 billion), he said by telephone from his office in Jakarta.

International tourist arrivals in Asia-Pacific grew an annual 6 per cent to 248 million last year, the strongest of any region worldwide, according to the UN World Tourism Organisation.

To cope with this, construction is being ramped up.

The Canada-based Airports Council International (ACI) said in a report that Indonesia plans to build 62 new airports in the next five years, in addition to its existing 237.

Soekarno-Hatta in Jakarta is improving capacity after handling 60 million passengers last year, nearly three times what it was designed for, ACI said.

And Kuala Lumpur aims to double capacity to 100 million a year by 2020, while Hong Kong wants to handle 97 million annually by 2030, up from 60 million in 2013.

In Beijing – which already has a hub servicing 80 million people – a second, US$11 billion (A$11.8 billion) airport is being built to open in 2018 and handle 40 million passengers, Sydney-based consultancy Centre for Aviation said.

There are also plans for a full replacement of Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport, one of Asia’s most notorious for overcrowding and backward facilities.

Its Terminal 1, which is undergoing a major makeover, was built in 1981 to handle six million passengers a year.

Together with two extension terminals, the airport handled around 30 million passengers in 2013.

Even Singapore’s Changi – regarded by many as one of the world’s best – is expanding, with a US$1 billion (A$1.1 billion) Terminal 4 opening in 2017 that will raise capacity to 82 million passengers from the current 54 million. Plans are already being made for a Terminal 5.

Shukor Yusof, an analyst with Malaysia-based Endau Analytics, said airport infrastructure in many countries has lagged well behind travel growth.

“Many governments have paid scant attention to developing new terminals and new tarmacs, that’s why you find that many of the airports are bursting at the seams,” he said.

The focus is not just on capitals. The need for more space means much of the new construction is taking place in secondary cities, with some facilities potentially becoming hubs.

De Lavigne cited the Kualanamu International Airport in Indonesia’s Medan, which opened last July and could become a hub for flights to Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar, India and China.

It was designed to handle eight million passengers a year but is already at capacity, he said.

“By 2025, they’re forecasting 24 million passengers out of Medan, or a three-fold increase in just over 10 years,” De Lavigne said, adding that Indonesia’s aviation sector alone is growing 14 to 15 per cent a year.

Even less developed tourist destinations are pressing ahead with building.

Myanmar – returning to the global fold after decades of junta-led isolation – is looking to upgrade 39 airports as tourist and domestic air passenger figures are seen surging to 30 million in 2030 from 4.2 million in 2013, the ACI said.

The government is also building a new US$1.5 billion Hanthawaddy International Airport to serve as Yangon’s second airport, it added.

Bangladesh is constructing a new airport costing up to US$7.2 billion (A$7.7 billion) about 60 kilometres from Dhaka, ACI said.

Funding from governments and the private sector does not appear to be a problem.

“There’s a lot of liquidity out there. There’s a lot of money in project financing,” Shukor said.

Airports are now even targeting non-travellers, with the current trend for “aeroparks and aerotropolises” integrating lifestyle amenities, attracting diners and shoppers who won’t even board flights.

“You get people who don’t fly to come into the airports for food, shopping and other lifestyle activities. That trend which started in the West is increasingly finding its way into Asia,” De Lavigne said.

AFP