PARLIAMENT | Transport Minister Anthony Loke said the government will not allow any airline company to monopolise particular airports in the country.

He said this when answering a question about AirAsia’s proposal to move its Sabah base of operations back to Terminal 2 of the Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA).

The question was posed by Ahmad Hassan (Pakatan Harapan-Papar) during the Ministers’ Question Time in the Dewan Rakyat today.

“We will examine the suggestion for AirAsia to move to Terminal 2 from a technical viewpoint and not based on sentiment.

“Whatever the suggestions are, at the base of it, we will not allow any company to dominate or monopolise a particular airport.

“Our policy is that we hope for a healthy competition between airline companies and to ensure that the airports can accommodate the increasing capacities,” Loke said.

For now, he said, AirAsia is the biggest airline operator in KKIA.

The airport's Terminal 1 has a capacity of nine million people, of which AirAsia handles more than four million people, he added.

AirAsia operated from KKIA’s Terminal 2 from mid-2004 up until December 2015.

However, according to AirAsia Malaysia CEO Riad Asmat in a statement yesterday, the airline was compelled to move to Terminal 1 in light of amenities and facilities being made unavailable for its operations then.

Riad added that AirAsia was prepared to fund the refurbishing of Terminal 2 in order to facilitate the airline's expansion, which was currently hampered by the "higher cost base" at Terminal 1. 

When met at the Parliament lobby, Loke said AirAsia proposed to operate at Terminal 2 of KKIA, taking over the role of MAHB.

He added that AirAsia boss Tony Fernandez only spoke about the proposal verbally.

While he noted that the government opposes monopoly in the airline industry, he said the government has yet to make a decision on AirAsia's proposal.

Loke said there will be a discussion on the matter with various stakeholders, including the Sabah state government.

On the airport expansion, the minister said: "We are not satisfied with status quo. We have to look at other models to expand the airports without incurring much cost to the government."

The options being considered are a public-private joint venture, private-finance initiative (PFI) and built, operate and transfer (BOT), Loke added.

He said Penang International Airport and KKIA are among the airports where expansion is needed.