A four billion ringgit satellite terminal will be built at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) to double passenger handling capacity by 2008, officials said today.

Malaysia Airports senior general manager Abdul Hamid Mohamad Ali said the airport's second main terminal would be able to cater for the new superjumbo Airbus A380 aircraft, the world's biggest civil aircraft.

"The new satellite B will have facilities including passenger transit system, taxiway and baggage system," he said. Malaysia Airports manages all the country's airports.

KLIA currently handles some 21 million passengers a year with a capacity for 25 million. The airport was opened in 1998 at a cost of RM10 billion.

Under a KLIA masterplan, work on the new terminal would start in 2006. It would allow the airport to handle another 25 million passengers.

Threat to everyone

National carrier Malaysia Airlines has placed orders for six A380 aircraft, with delivery due in 2007.

Malaysia Airports managing director Bashir Ahmad said the new satellite building would take about two-and-a-half years to complete.

"We are in discussions with the government on the funding for the construction of the satellite. We would like the new satellite to be operational in 2008," he told reporters.

Asked if KLIA posed a threat to Singapore's Changi Airport or Thailand's international airport in Bangkok, Bashir said: "We are a threat to everyone. We have a huge potential for growth - both domestic and outgoing market. Tourism is coming into the country."

Bashir said that two carriers from India - Jet Airways and Air Sahara - would fly into KLIA in April from Chennai. Currently 46 carriers fly into KLIA.

A new terminal dedicated to low-cost airlines costing RM100 million would also be built at KLIA, the government announced recently.