KL LCCT closes as AirAsia moves house
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Kuala Lumpur’s old Low-Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT) officially closed this morning today (9 May 2014) after eight years of operations.
The facility was launched in March 2006 to handle the fast-expanding AirAsia, and after a just a week of moving time, Asia’s biggest budget airline has now shifted its entire Malaysian operations from the LCCT to the brand new KLIA2.
Malaysia’s Bernama news agency reports that the last flight to depart from the LCCT was an AirAsia X flight to Jeddah. The final AirAsia flight departed on Thursday night, bound for Kolkata.
AirAsia Malaysia’s CEO, Aireen Omar, told reporters she was sad to leave the LCCT.
“The last night for us… is a very sad feeling in the sense that the LCCT had been so kind to us,” Ms Omar was quoted saying by Bernama. “[We have] many good memories here with a lot of good launches, new routes and a lot of international connectivity created.
“We made the LCCT a very well-known low-cost carrier airport hub in this region and I think it is very sad feeling for us here,” she added.
The LCCT was initially designed as a temporary hub for up to seven million passengers per year. It was then expanded to handle 15m passengers in 2009, but eventually ended up catering to approximately 22m annual passengers. The new KLIA2 opened on 2 May 2014 and will be able to handle up to 45m passengers per year.
AirAsia’s inaugural flight into KLIA2 arrived from Ho Chi Minh City at 1510 on 9 May.
Along with AirAsia and AirAsia X, KLIA 2 will provide a home base to Malindo Air. It will also handle numerous inbound LCCs including Cebu Pacific, Tigerair and Lion Air.
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