Growth Potential of Senai Airport
Opened in 1974, the airport's main purpose was to prevent the "leakage" of passenger and cargo traffic from Johor into Singapore. However, the airport never fulfilled its purpose due to the limited number of flights and airlines at the airport.
Today, Senai remains primarily a domestic airport. With the South Johor region being developed, Senai International Airport might yet have a chance at becoming an air transport hub in Malaysia.
Located strategically in the Iskandar Malaysia, Senai International Airport is set to become a major hub in the future. As such, Senai Airport Terminal Services (SATS) plans to invest up to RM1 billion over the next few years to upgrade the airport's passenger and cargo facilities such as building a new cargo centre and increasing the airport's retail space. Since Senai Airport was bought over, passenger traffic at the airport has more than doubled in the recent years and cargo traffic increasing significantly. The number of flights at the airport has also doubled due to efforts to attract new airlines and getting existing airlines to increase flights. Qatar Airways Cargo, which started weekly cargo flights to Senai International Airport, plans to double the number of weekly flights to two due to high demand for its service with 80% of the cargo continuing on to Europe.
Also, SATS wants to take advantage of the proximity of the airport to Singapore to attract people in Singapore to use Senai Airport. It has recently completed the building of the City Lounge, located at the Kotaraya Bus Terminal. The City Lounge provides bus services to the airport, city centre and Kranji MRT Station in Singapore, thus increasing the accessibility of the airport. From Singapore, one may take a public bus service or 'restricted' taxi to Kotaraya Bus Terminal. From the bus terminal, one can change to an express bus service provided by the airport to get to Senai airport. However, if one does take a public bus over the Causeway, it is extremely inconvenient for someone with luggage since there is a need to disembark and re-board the bus on both the Singapore and Malaysian sides of the border to pass immigration and customs which is one level up from street level. If one makes the trip in both directions, it is twice the hassle. No porters or luggage trolleys is provided. Also, there is currently a minimal amount of domestic flights from Senai.
In order to attract more Malaysians and Singapore residents, SATS plans to have a wider range of direct flights to major cities such as Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Taipei, Shanghai, Perth, etc. However, efforts to attract other Asian budget carriers to fly some of these routes have so far been unsuccessful. Singaporeans currently make up about 40% of the passengers using the airport.
Under future plans, a new KTM mainline railway station is to be located at the airport, helping to increase ground interconnectivity for the airport's passengers. Currently, no rail service is provided at the airport.
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