Government officials from the Malaysian island of Penang have urged Malaysia Airport Berhad (MAB) to push for federal government funding to build an integrated air cargo terminal to accommodate future air cargo growth on the island.

Penang’s Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said the terminal is a worthwhile investment as it will bring in more cargo flights to Penang. “We really need an air cargo hub here so that we will be ready for a bigger market share of the cargo industry when the economy picks up,” he said.

The Penang Freight Forwarders Association (PFFA) has also expressed its support for the development of an air cargo hub on the island and said it was disappointed that the government’s economic stimulus package, which allocated RM250 million for the expansion of the Penang International Airport passenger terminal.

Penang is already somewhat of a mini-hub owing to its position as a semiconductor manufacturing centre, but with the global economy in turmoil, the island has seen a drop of 42 per cent in air cargo traffi c between January and April this year compared to the same period last year. Total exports have also dropped by 37 per cent, Lim said.

“What we really need now is to get the project approved and funding from the federal government,” he said at a dialogue session with MAB, MASkargo and Penang Freight Forwarders’ Association.

“Penang needs a modern, state-ofthe- art integrated air cargo terminal with the capacity to handle additional volumes of freight and such a terminal will surely complement the business environment for Penang,” he added.

Currently, there are two cargo complexes at the airport, one operated by MAS and the other by KLAS, on either side of the runway.

“PFFA is very disappointed with this turn of events as we have been asking for a single air cargo terminal, instead of having two separate ones for many years now,” PFFA first vice-president and air freight board chairman P Kalimuthu was quoted as saying by Th e Edge.

“We have had to incur higher operation costs, going from one cargo complex to the other, which are located several kilometres apart despite being only separated by the runway.”

Kalimuthu said the site for an air cargo terminal already existed in Batu Maung and all it required was the political will to carry out the project. He said the relocation of the two air cargo complexes into a single terminal should be carried out now, while there was a slowdown in the economy.

In 2008, Penang airport handled 3.4 million passengers and 300,000 tonnes of air cargo.