Sultan Ismail Petra Airport to be upgraded as international airport — Anwar

• Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said he had asked Transport Minister Anthony Loke Siew Fook to expedite the ongoing construction of the airport.

KOTA BHARU (May 2): The Federal Government agrees with the Kelantan government's proposal to extend the runway at the Sultan Ismail Petra Airport by 400 metres for it to become an international airport.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said he had asked Transport Minister Anthony Loke Siew Fook to expedite the ongoing construction of the airport.

"Phase One is already completed and (Kelantan) Menteri Besar Datuk Mohd Nassuruddin Daud expressed his gratitude but he asked that a 400m-long runway be added to turn it into an international airport.

"As such, the Federal Government has agreed to extend the runway and we will do this soonest as possible so that haj pilgrims can fly directly from Kota Bharu to Jeddah,” he said.

He said this when speaking at the 2024 Madani Aidilfitri celebration at the Tunjong Rural Transformation Centre here on Thursday night. It was also attended by Minister of Agriculture and Food Security Datuk Seri Mohamad Sabu and Minister of Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad.

On Thursday afternoon, Anwar spent about 30 minutes surveying the facilities and amenities provided at the airport's new phase one terminal which began operating on Wednesday.

The phase one terminal can handle 1.5 million passengers while the construction of phase two will be carried out immediately to make it able to handle four million passengers.

The new terminal has over 20 airline counters, multi-storey car parks, special lanes for taxis, fire and rescue station, additional space for parking aircraft and a cashless operating system for the benefit of passengers.

The airport's expansion and upgrading projects cost RM440 million.

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