KLIA awards 2012 acknowledges the outstanding performers in Malaysian aviation industry
Sepang, 28 October 2013 - Malaysia Airports held its KLIA awards presentation to honour partners with exceptional performance for the year 2012. The
prestigious KLIA Awards is the ideal platform for Malaysia Airports to reward its partners with outstanding performances and services. The presentation of
the KLIA Awards is aimed at recognizing and motivating all KLIA business partners that relentlessly push the boundaries of distinction in their fields,
enabling KLIA to further advance in service excellence.
KLIA Awards was first introduced in 2006. It has gained reputation as one of the most important events in the calendar of the nation's aviation industry.
KLIA Awards winners are chosen based on their 2012 achievement in sectors such as passenger movement, growth factor, sales performance, international
recognition as well as their service performance.
In line with Malaysia Airports' emphasis to continuously enhance and drive the service excellence culture at KLIA, Malaysia Airports is introducing another
new award category under the Service Excellence Awards, called ASQ Star Performer Award to recognise and honour the outstanding achievements and efforts of
an exceptional individual who, through a combination of personal qualities and exceptional skills, has given significant and sterling performance and
contribute positively throughout their career at KLIA.
Foreign Airline of the Year Award by Sector awards were also expanded with the inclusion of Africa sector, as KLIA now also offers connection to the second
largest continent in the world.
Y.Bhg. Tan Sri Dato' Sri Dr. Wan Abdul Aziz Wan Abdullah, Chairman of Malaysia Airports highlighted some of the aviation industry milestones since 2012,
"In 2012, the Malaysian aviation industry had climbed up the competitive ladder of the global aviation industry when we welcomed the world's latest
cutting-edge jumbo airliner from Airbus, the A380, to our runway in KLIA. Within a matter of weeks that year we received two A380 operations, namely from
Emirates Airlines and our national carrier, Malaysia Airlines.
Remarkably, in 2013 the Malaysian aviation moved up yet another notch to be at par with global aviation sector when Malaysia Airlines joined the oneworld
alliance and the third national carrier, Malindo Air, commenced its operations in March of 2013."
He added, "Malaysia Airports could not have been more proud and delighted of these remarkable milestones by its airline partners. It is important to note
that the airport depends on the success of all its partners. An airport's success has direct bearing on the innovativeness and aggressiveness of its
partners."
On passenger movements, he said, "In 2012, Malaysia Airports had recorded a total of 67.2 million passenger movements at all its airports in Malaysia,
which was a 5% growth from the 64 million passengers recorded in 2011. KLIA represents 60% of the total passengers which amounts to 40 million passengers
in 2012. The airport continues to chart an aggressive growth of passenger movements this year where up to the month of September 2013, KLIA passengers grew
by 18.5% over the same corresponding period in 2012, to 34.4 million. Specifically, passenger movements at KLIA Main Terminal increased by 24% to 18.6
million while passengers at the Low-Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT-KLIA) grew by 11.8% to 15.8 million. If this trend continues, KLIA stands to perform even
better in passenger movements compared to last year."
He also highlighted the importance of service excellence at KLIA, "As the number of passengers continues to rise, the KLIA community must consistently
deliver excellent services to all our customers and passengers. In many of our efforts to move towards achieving the world-class aviation hub vision for
KLIA, one system called "Advancing Towards A Culture of Excellence" (ACE) were put in place. This brilliant project involves the collaborative action from
all the airport stakeholders and agencies to champion the change towards ensuring that our ASQ, or Airport Service Quality ranking are once again amongst
the top in the world. KLIA used to be number one in the world in ASQ ranking for three consecutive years in 2005, 2006 and 2007. I believe we can once
again achieve number one if we put our efforts together towards a common goal."
Tan Sri Wan Abdul Aziz also conveyed Malaysia Airports' gratitude towards the Government for the recently announced budget for aviation, "Malaysia Airports
would like to thank the Government of Malaysia for its support and we welcome the government's announcement for the aviation sector in Budget 2014. The
Malaysian aviation industry had greatly benefited from the continuous support it receives from the Government of Malaysia. In the recent Budget 2014
announcement, the government will be allocating about RM1 billion for the aviation industry, of which RM700 million will be allocated for the development
of a new traffic management system to be built at KLIA. This new system will increase the capacity in handling air traffic and could possibly have the
highest capacity for air traffic management in the world. We are pleased with this decision by the Government to upgrade the air traffic control system
operated by the Department of Civil Aviation. This will enable us to optimise the use of all our 3 runways at KLIA for the airlines. This will also put us
significantly ahead of the other airports in the region.
Another RM300 million will be allocated for the upgrading airports nationwide such as Kota Kinabalu and Langkawi International Airport, and Kuantan,
Sandakan, Miri, Sibu and Mukah Airport. This would allow our country to be more competitive in offering capacity for the local and regional growth of
aviation. We working closely with the Government to continue to upgrade the airport infrastructure for the comfort and convenience of the traveling public.
The continued upgrading will also provide additional capacity for the airlines to expand their operations. We also welcome the Government's decision to
formulate a National Aviation Policy. It will be good for the aviation industry. Airports, airlines and relevant stakeholders will be able to work together
to promote air travel."
2013 has so far been a good year for KLIA. KLIA maintained its superb streak in service excellence when it was voted the World's Best Immigration Service
in the 2013 Skytrax World Airport Award, the most prestigious accolades for the world airport industry. KLIA also continues to be one of the traveller's
favourite airports when the airport maintained its third spot in the Top 10 Airports Worldwide category of the Smart Travel Asia 2013 Best in Travel Poll.
Ending his speech, Tan Sri Wan Abdul Aziz paid homage to the one and only aviation award in the country, "Let me conclude by expressing my warmest
congratulations to those who will be announced as KLIA Awards 2012 recipients, and by saluting those who have shaped this Award since it was first
introduced in 2006 until today, in its eighth edition. I am confident that the recognition implicit in receiving the nation's most prestigious awards in
aviation sector will inspire the recipients to still greater achievements in the future. I have full confidence that tonight's winners will realise the
great responsibility placed upon them to continue to climb on the limitless ladder of excellence and prestige.
Also at the award ceremony were YB Dato' Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein, Minister of Transport; YB Datuk Abdul Aziz Kaprawi, Deputy Minister of Transport
and Y.Bhg. Tan Sri Bashir Ahmad, Managing Director of Malaysia Airports. Approximately 400 guests attended the event which was held at the Sama-Sama Hotel
Kuala Lumpur International Airport.