Of late the Ipoh Sultan Azlan Shah Airport is in operation again. Firefly is flying into this airport long closed because airlines find it not viable to operate from. For political reasons, the Pakatan Rakyat Government tried to make it operational and was on the verge of doing so when it was toppled and the Barisan Nasional Government finalized the plan. There is now a plan to extend the runway so that bigger planes can land.
The airport used to accommodate 737s which had little trouble landing and taking off except on rainy days when it is not as safe to land and very often planes were diverted to other airports leaving passengers in a fix. Most of the passengers were transit passengers who would take outgoing flights to further destinations and some came in from airports like KLIA and Changi Singapore. Few, if any, took the flight especially for Kuala Lumpur with the exception of some very busy businessmen. Thus, except for high seasons when students leave for overseas destinations and the Muslim pilgrimage season, one can find few passengers boarding and disembarking.
Given such a situation, of course it was uneconomical to operate a large passenger capacity plane like the 737. However, I am given to understand that even with a smaller planes operated by airlines companies, a large and substantial subsidy has to be given by the state government to make it possible for these airlines companies to operate a flight between Ipoh and other destinations as most airports need to subsidize flights to use their airports for the sake of improving their economic status of the airport and city.
Why do we need Air Flights?
Why is there a need to operate an airport in the city of Ipoh? Most airports are operated to ensure that the city has good transport links that will provide fast and efficient services to the people. Since the airport is not large enough for larger planes other than the 737s, no major international flights would use this airport. Thus, people from Ipoh needing to fly overseas have to go to KLIA or Bayan Lepas in Penang. A link service with these flights to these two international airports would serve these passengers well but unfortunately the number would not be large enough to have for those two flights a day and such the timing may not be always appropriate. Passengers may have to wait for a long period of time at the international airports. Thus, the saving in time by a quick trip would be wasted in long waits at the international airports.
The distance from Ipoh to KL
If one look at the distance from Ipoh to KLIA and Bayan Lepas, Penang, one would at once realize that a quick journey by road is more viable. One could be driven down or go by regular buses right up to these airports (especially KLIA and LCCT, Sepang). With the improved train service, a passenger from Ipoh could take a train to KL Sentral and then the link to the KLIA all in a jiff! Why then do we need an air link?
If ones destination is Kuala Lumpur, all the more, it is not advisable to fly for the early check-in time and the delay in checking-out would extend one’s travelling time to exactly that of driving from Ipoh to KL or vice versa. It may even be more, should there be a delay or one may miss the entire trip should it rain heavily and the flight is cancelled!
Given all these, it is no wonder that few people take to flying from Ipoh to Kuala Lumpur, especially when the distance from KLIA and LCCT to the city proper is far and taxis are costly. It is as expensive to take a taxi from KLIA/LCCT to KL as it is to KL from Ipoh!
With the dual track railway system in place and electric trains, the time taken to travel for Ipoh to KL and vice versa would even be shorter. Therefore the need for taking a flight would even be less. Given such a scenario, do you think we need to extend the runway?
The dangers and the discomfort
Unfortunately for Ipoh, the city is located in a valley (The Kinta Valley) with mountain ranges on the west and east and dotted with high limestone hills all around and within the city. These post a real danger to aeroplanes landing and taking off especially when it is hazy or raining. Night landing is also rather risky.
In addition, its valley location has caused winds to blow from specific directions and landing and takeoff would be restricted to these directions. Thus, those at either ends of the runway would be constantly disturbed by noise and rain of pollutants from jet engines and the approach and takeoff flight pattern would always remain the same over the city.
Being a valley, the pollutants from aircraft engines would also linger longer in it. Such particles are trapped and cannot be scattered over larger areas as compared to an airport located in a rather flat and wider area.
The noise pollution must be the main concern of residents of Ipoh. To have an airport surrounded by residential areas and a runway right next door is unacceptable. With the extension planned, some houses may even share a common fence with the airport! Those living next door to the airport would be able to see the threads of the airplane’s tyres as they come down to land or take off.
Smell of burnt kerosene is not very pleasant and to be flooded with it a few times a day is really going to be a health hazard coupled with the noise affecting the ears and nerves of residence of Ipoh City. Spare a thought for the city tax payers if nothing else and abandoned this project.
Smaller Planes will do
Forget the extension. The present planes are already half-empty! Tax payers already have to subsidise the airline. Do you want us to pay more? The average tax payer from Ipoh would not be using the services. Some rich guy will benefit and being rich they should not need our subsidy but the set up is such we do subsidize them somehow!
Smaller planes are less noisy, less polluting and should they crash (God forbid) less damage would befall the houses and people. Maybe the airport should be converted to a private plane base. As it is the flying club is already using it for such a purpose, so why not ask a few rich guys to use it for their private planes. They can be in KL and drive in to Ipoh in their sports care (pay the fine for speeding down Plus Highway E1) and fly their planes anywhere they like from Ipoh.
Who is going to benefit from the extension?
Surely not the average person in Ipoh! The business inclined rich guy would. The guy who would benefit will be the few involved in the contract to build the extension. How long will the money be spread to the people of Ipoh. I doubt it would even last for a year. First, the profits will not be among Ipoh businessmen, most likely the company getting the contract to extend the runways would be KL based. Some workers will be given jobs, mostly immigrants from Indonesia or Bangladesh so Ipoh workers will not get jobs as they would be too expensive for the firm doing the extension work. Most immigrant workers do not spend in the city, they save and send home their money. Will suppliers of materials get much money? Well maybe a few limestone quarries can exploit our lovely hill more to supple rocks at the expense of Ipohites. The beautiful limestone hills will be further scared and more dust will be in the air.
So, my suggestion to the BN government of Perak is to stop playing politics and become realistic about our City’s needs. Build a new airport nearby Ipoh to bring in the tourists and make it easier for our international businessmen to travel overseas and do business and bring back wealth and investments from overseas. Let them make it easy for overseas business associates to reach Ipoh in one hop but not at the expense of the dwellers of the city itself. Having cement factories in it and limestone quarries, factories processing marble and limestone that churn millions of dust particles into the air daily is already bad enough, don’t add noise and kerosene pollution into our daily diet!
(Victor Chew is a prominent educationist. He had served in the teaching profession for more than 30 years. He is currently a committee member of Ipoh City Watch (ICW) a non governmental organisation based in Ipoh.)