Penang International Airport, Bayan Lepas

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For information about arriving in Penang by flight, read Arriving by Plane

The Penang International Airport (PEN), or Lapangan Terbang Antarabangsa Pulau Pinang, is the main airport for the northern region of Peninsular Malaysia. It was formerly known as the Bayan Lepas International Airport. The airport is located in Bayan Lepas, about 16 km (10 miles) from George Town, on the southeastern part of Penang Island.

Penang International Airport (22 May 2009)
© Timothy Tye using this photo

An airfield has existed in Bayan Lepas since the early 1960s. It was built on swampy land that was drained and reclaimed. A major expansion was carried out in the 1970s. During this expansion project, a new terminal building in the Minangkabau design was constructed. The runway was also extended to allow the airport to handle the B747. The new terminal and runway were officially opened on 2 June, 1979 by the then Yang Di-Pertua Negri of Penang, Tun Haji Sardon bin Jubir, with his consort Toh Puan Hajjah Sadiah, attended by the Chief Minister of Penang, the late Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu, the Minister of Transport Tan Sri V. Manickavasagam, Minister of Works and Utilities Datuk Lee San Choon, and other VIPs. Since then, the airport terminal has been renovated and expanded a few times, the last in early 2009, when a new check-in wing was added to the south side of the terminal.

The Penang International Airport presently has an annual capacity of 5 million passengers. It has 64 check-in desks and 11 gates, 8 aerobridges and 3 baggage claim belts. It also has cargo facilities including seven freighter docks for the B747.

Penang International Airport (28 October 2006)
© Timothy Tye using this photo

Presently, the airlines flying to the Penang International Airport includes AirAsia, Cathay Pacific, China Airlines, Firefly, Jetstar Asia, China Southern Airlines, Kartika Airlines, Lion Air, Malaysia Airlines, Silkair, Singapore Airlines, Sriwijaya Air, Thai Airways and Tiger Airways. Cargo airlines using the airport includes Air Hong Kong, Asiana Cargo, Cathay Pacific Cargo, China Airlines Cargo, DHL Air / Transmile, FedEx, KLM Cargo, Korean Air Cargo, Lufthansa Cargo, MASkargo and UPS.

In terms of size, Penang International Airport is the fourth biggest airport in Malaysia after KLIA, Kota Kinabalu International Airport and Kuching International Airport. In terms of passenger movement, it is the third busiest airport in Malaysia after KLIA and Kota Kinabalu International Airport. In 2008, it handled 3.4 million passengers, 43,796 aircraft movements, and handled 192,936 metric tonnes of cargo.

Plans are on the drawing board to add a low cost carrier terminal to the airport. At time of writing (May 2009), the plans are said to be in the final negotiations. Penang International Airport won the Airport of the Year award for 2009 Frost and Sullivan Asia Pacific Aerospace and Defence for airports below 15-million-passenger category.

Penang International Airport aerobridge (28 October 2006)
© Timothy Tye using this photo

Updates on the Penang International Airport

21 December 2010: The Penang International Airport will be given a RM250 upgrade, to be completed by June 2012. The upgrade involves increasing the floor area to 52,000 sq m, enabling the airport to support 5 million passenger movement a year, from the present 3.5 million. The number of car parks will also be increased from 1,200 to 2,000. There will also be more aircraft parking bays, immigration, customs and security screening counters, baggage reclaim carousels, departure lanes, public seating and toilets. There will be a full segregation of domestic and international passengers.

Getting there

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Rapid Penang Bus Routes 401, 401E and 401E stop at the terminal building of the airport. Rapid Penang Route 102, relaunched on 15 March 2010, links the airport with the beach belt of Batu Ferringhi.