New flights launched by carriers to the under-utilised Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) will not have to pay parking and landing fees for the next five years, the government said today.

Transport Minister Dr Ling Liong Sik said the decision was partly prompted by a recent pick-up in interest among airlines interested in starting or extending services to KLIA. These included Cathay Pacific and Emirates Airlines, he was quoted as saying by Bernama news agency.

Malaysia has been searching for ways to attract more airlines to the airport so it can compete with the nearby aviation hub of Singapore.

Ling has said Kuala Lumpur would take a flexible approach to negotiating bilateral landing rights.

Some top airlines including British Airways, Qantas and Lufthansa have stopped services to the RM9 billion airport.

Though it was built to handle as many 25 million passengers a year, only 14.6 million people passed through KLIA last year.

Malaysia Airports, which manages and operates 37 airports in the country, had said it would spend RM10 million in 2002 to promote KLIA a regional hub.