Sumber: FINANCIAL TIMES

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British Airways akan menghentikan semua penerbangan dari London ke Luala Lumpur tahun depan. Ini adalah satu pukulan kepada cinta-cita Malaysia untuk menjadi pusat penerbangan serantau.

Hubungan bersejarah sejak 50 tahun yang lalu itu terpaksa ditamatkan kerana ia kurang menguntungkan, menurut Ken Ryan, GM bagii Qantas dan British Airways. "Kami tidak sanggup rugi lagi", ulas beliau.

Malaysia membelanjakan RM 9 billion untuk membuka lapangan terbang KLIA yang seluas 10,000 hektar pada 1998 itu. Ia bertujuan untuk bersaing dengan Singapura dan Bangkok.

Lapangan terbang Changi singapura nampaknya semakin maju. Ia kini sedang membina satu terminal ketiga untuk menampung Airbus siri A3XX yang boleh membawa 500 penumpang. Singapura telah memesan 25 biji kapalterbang AirBus model A3XX tersebut pada harga $US8.6 billion. Ia akan tiba pada tahun 2006, serentak dengan siapnya terminal baru yang berharga $S1.5 billion itu siap.

Lapangan terbang Singapura terkenal kerana kecekapannya dan hampirnya ia dengan pusat bandar. KLIA tidak popular kerana ia terletak 70km dari ibunegara, kira-kira sejam perjalanan.

Namun demikian, kedudukkan bandara baru Putrajaya agak hampir dengan KLIA dan KLIA mungkin bersinar kembali bilka bndar baru itu siap sepenuhnya

http://news.ft.com/

FT: BA blow to Malaysia air hopes

By Sheila McNulty in Singapore
Published: October 12 2000 19:41GMT
Last Updated: October 13 2000 03:04GMT

British Airways is stopping all flights from London to Kuala Lumpur next year in a blow to Malaysia's ambition of becoming a regional air hub.

The route dates back 50 years to when Malaysia was a British colony, but the airline says it must sever that historic link.

"It has been unprofitable for some time," Ken Ryan, south-east Asia regional general manager for Qantas and British Airways, told the Financial Times. "We didn't think that was going to change any time soon. We're not able to bear those losses any longer," he said.

BA will reduce its six flights a week from London to Kuala Lumpur to five at the end of October and end the service next March.

Malaysia spent M$9bn (US$2.4bn) to open its new 10,000 hectare, high-technology, international airport in 1998 in the hope that it would replace the well-established airports n Singapore and Bangkok as a regional hub.

Business is so robust in neighbouring Singapore's Changi International Airport that it has just started work on a third airport terminal. It will be designed around the Airbus A3XX capable of carrying more than 500 passengers, and will more than double Changi's capacity to 64m passengers a year.

Singapore Airlines, the island-state's national carrier, has put in an US$8.6bn order for 25 of the A3XX, with the first delivery scheduled for 2006 - the same year in which the S$1.5bn (US$858m) third terminal is to be completed.

Singapore's airport is known for its efficiency and proximity to the central business district.

At 70km from the capital, Malaysia's new airport is unpopular with many travellers because it is an hour's drive, without traffic, from the capital.