Sultan Azlan Shah Airport
| Sultan Azlan Shah Airport | |||||||||||
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| Summary | |||||||||||
| Airport type | Public | ||||||||||
| Owner | Government of Malaysia | ||||||||||
| Operator | Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (MAHB) | ||||||||||
| Serves | Perak, Malaysia | ||||||||||
| Location | Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia | ||||||||||
| Time zone | MST (UTC+08:00) | ||||||||||
| Elevation AMSL | 130 ft / 40 m | ||||||||||
| Coordinates | 04°34′09″N 101°05′35″E / 4.56917°N 101.09306°ECoordinates: 04°34′09″N 101°05′35″E / 4.56917°N 101.09306°E | ||||||||||
| Map | |||||||||||
 WMKI
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| Runways | |||||||||||
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| Statistics (2015) | |||||||||||
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Source: official web site
AIP Malaysia |
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| Passenger | 222,606 ( 125.4%) |
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| Airfreight (tonnes) | 318 ( 7.2%) |
| Aircraft movements | 19,956 ( 12.9%) |
Sultan Azlan Shah Airport (IATA: IPH, ICAO: WMKI) is an airport that serves Ipoh, a city in the state of Perak, Malaysia. It is located 6 km away from the city center.Sultan Azlan Shah Airport also is the 7th busiest airport in Malaysia.
Originally a small Fokker airfield, it steadily expanded to accommodate jet operations. The then new airport terminal was readied in time for Queen Elizabeth II's visit to the Royal Town of Kuala Kangsar in 1989. The airport then was bustling with passengers when Malaysia Airlines was operating from Subang. When the North-South Expressway opened, many people started using cars and Malaysia Airlines followed by Air Asia stopped their services, turning the airport into a white elephant. Since the introduction of the electric trains which go right into the city centre of Kuala Lumpur, Ipoh Airport had to seriously reconsider its strategy. The runway was extended to 2,000 meters yet declared unsafe on Dec 2013 as there were potholes, so only propeller planes could land. On 10 July, the sinkhole problem was fixed, and Sultan Azlan Shah Airport can now handle larger aircraft and has a longer runway.
The government realised that the airport could no longer be extended due to its location near residential areas. The Government then planned a new airport in Seri Iskandar. In late 2008, they replanned it to be located in Batang Padang, near Tapah. They discussed that Firefly and AirAsia will start operations there. The site area is 1,600 ha.
There was also another plan to make Ipoh as a feeder airport to other regions, as it couldn't compete with other airports such as Kuala Lumpur International Airport and Penang International Airport.
In 2013, Tigerair expressed interest in expanding their routes to Sultan Azlan Shah Airport. Officials of Xiamen Airlines and airlines in Medan have also indicated interest in flying to Ipoh.
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Wikipedia