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When completed in 2011, the proposed new airport will exclusively serve AirAsia. Other low cost carriers will use a RM108 million terminal located about 20km away from KLIA, which was hastily constructed in June 2005 and was operational by March 2006.
KLIA-East@Labu may be the boon that Sime needs to weather the fall in commodity prices. Last month, Sime Darby proposed to buy and privatize the National Heart Centre, which is wholly owned by the Ministry of Finance, but that was met by fierce objections from the public, particularly from bloggers and others who argued that Sime Darby wanted access to the heart center’s cash reserve, estimated at RM250 million.
After Sime Darby’s takeover of plantation giants Golden Hope Plantations Bhd and Kumpulan Guthrie Bhd in Nov 2007, the conglomerate became the world's leading oil palm plantation group with 543,000 hectares of land relying heavily on palm oil, which contributed 47 percent of revenue at that time.
Since then, CPO has dived from about RM3,000 per tonne to about RM1,800. The futures market also suggests a downward trend. The conglomerate announced recently that profits would fall by 46 percent for the current fiscal year and is said by bloggers to be facing oil palm trading losses of RM80 million. According to its first quarter results in September last year, plantation revenue at RM3,491 mil contributed 40 percent of total revenue, and the average CPO selling price was RM3,151 per tonne. Other major revenue-generating arms – construction and cars – are set to crunch under sharply reduced global demand.
All this has caught the eye of the ever vigilant Mahathir, who delivered a caustic critique of the airport project on his widely-read blog, Che Det.
“We paid RM8 billion for KLIA Sepang,” Mahathir wrote. “Even a small airport at today's prices would be near to RM2 billion. The distance to Kuala Lumpur would be longer but of course it would be nearer Seremban and other parts in Negri Sembilan,” he wrote on Jan 6 in his blog. “But that's all right as you don't pay any fare for the flights, only for the fares to the airport.”
Currently, a taxi ride from Kuala Lumpur to KL International costs about RM86. From the main station in Kuala Lumpur, KL Sentral, an adult ticket on the Express Rail Link costs RM35 while a ticket to the low-cost terminal costs another RM9.
Despite a glum global economy, Fernandez remains upbeat about AirAsia’s future. By 2013, he told reporters, estimated combined annual traffic of the AirAsia group, which includes AirAsia X, its international fleet, would total 60 million passengers per year, making “only Japan Airlines…bigger than us (them) in terms of passengers” while the group’s fleet would have 184 aircraft, more than Singapore Airlines and Thai Airlines combined and Malaysia Airline’s estimated fleet of 125 aircraft.
AirAsia, says Wikipedia, was originally a debt-ridden airline founded by DRB-Hicom in 1993 and started operations in 1996. It was sold to Fernandez in 2001 for a token sum of RM1 (about US$0.28 in today’s exchange rates). He turned a profit by the next year and the company now has shares in regional affiliated companies, Thai AirAsia and Indonesia AirAsia, and international budget carrier, Air Asia X, in which Richard Branson’s Virgin Group owns 16 percent.
AirAsia’s share price has dived 44 percent year-on-year on Jan 8 from RM1.620 to a low RM0.900. Its market capitalization is RM2 billion.
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The grim truth of war remains: hearts and minds are lost in the campaign to get the enemy by the balls
The government backs down on a tycoon's sports betting plan
"you go to anywhere in the world whe the Cinese origin can maintain their name and customs" ?????
You're either uneducated (this is the digital age) or an bodoh dalam tempurong (nut). Whether you're Chinese or Muslims, no one forces you to change names in the free world eg US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand or for that matter, Europe. The millions of Muslims who migrated or who are migrating to these places aren't forced to change their names.
Did or do the Malay Muslims from Indonesia (eg Bugis, Javanese, Achenese, Baweans, Menangkerbaus) or the Mamaks from S India adopt the indigenous peoples' (Orang Asli like Jakuns, Senois, etc.) names in Malaya?
Migrants into SE Asia from elsewhere do adopt the indigenous peoples' names as in Indonesia, Phillipines, Thailand.
Your pengetahuan (knowledge) makes the world laugh.