KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) has submitted a comprehensive and strategic plan for the long-term development of the Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport (SAAS or Subang Airport) to the government.

In a statement today, the airport operator said the regeneration plan, which has been verified through extensive benchmarking and stakeholder engagements, is premised on three focus areas, namely aerospace ecosystem, business aviation, and urban community airport.

"It is meant to propel SAAS to become the preferred aerospace and business aviation hub in Asia Pacific in the next five years," it said.

MAHB group chief executive officer Datuk Mohd Shukrie Mohd Salleh said, since the company had been mandated by the government in 2005 to develop SAAS into an international aerospace park, it had grown the ecosystem by four times, and attracting the presence of 60 leading brand names and facilitating capital inflows of over RM500 million.

"Currently, there are over 35 local aviation operators, more than half of them Bumiputera companies," he said.

Moving forward, Mohd Shukrie said the regeneration plan would grow the ecosystem further by three times, doubling the number of global and local operators to more than 100 that will create and support 19,000 strong high skilled workforce.

It will help to spearhead Malaysia's transition into high technology, driven by the Industrial Revolution 4.0 (IR4.0) industries, and high-income nation with a projected value of over RM10.0 billion to the national economy.

"This is very much aligned to the strategic thrusts identified in the government's Shared Prosperity Vision 2030 and will achieve the aspirations of the Malaysian Aerospace Industry Blueprint 2030," he said.

With sufficient internal cash reserves for the regeneration plan, Mohd Shukrie said MAHB is ready now to undertake the SAAS regeneration plan.

"The plan requires infrastructure investment of RM300.0 million staggered over the next five years, and this is well within our capability as we still have a strong cash and money market position of RM1.6 billion with RM914.0 million available for the Malaysian operations," he added.

He said the funding for ready-built or build-to-suit facility could be easily facilitated via a combination of internal cash as well as project financing options.

"Despite the pandemic, we retain credit ratings of AAA by RAM Ratings and A3 by Moody's Investors Service, which is on par with Malaysia's country credit ratings," he said.

-- BERNAMA