1. I was sad when Subang International airport was replaced by the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang. I landed at Subang in a Government jet and saw the place deserted and quiet. No aircrafts were parked, taxiing, taking off or landing. Subang was a busy place from 1964 to 1998. But after the opening of KLIA at Sepang, Subang seemed to have been abandoned.
2. That was 1998. I despaired that it would ever be busy again; that it would regain its place as a major airport.
3. Well, it hasn’t. But Subang did not close down completely. Today Subang is once again busy. Today Subang is actually expanding.
4. New hangars are being built. The old Terminal 2 has been rebuilt to cater to the needs of Firefly’s turboprops and other local airlines. Two Fixed Based Operators, the Skypark and D’Nest handle a large number of private jets.
5. Airod, the former Aircraft Ordinance Depot of the RMAF, now operated as a private Company, accommodates a large number of passenger jets, which are serviced there. The old MAS engineering facilities are as busy as ever. MAS still do their engineering and servicing in the huge hangars there.
6. Foreign manufacturers of helicopters such as Eurocopter as well as Cessna general aviation have servicing and engineering facilities in Subang. Asian airlines often send their passenger jets for servicing by Malaysian aerospace companies.
7. New hangars and facilities are being built, necessitating expansion into the surrounding land. “Spirit” a well-known American composite manufacturer has a huge facility which will manufacture parts for the latest Boeing passenger jets.
8. Clearly a lot of investments are going into the reactivating of Subang. It reflects the growth of the aerospace industries in Malaysia, which contributes toward Malaysia’s economic growth.
9. On the north side of the runway the Royal Malaysian Air Force Base has been joined by the newly established Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency. The new service operates fixed-wing aircrafts and helicopters including two Bombardier fire-fighting amphibian aircrafts.
10. Malaysia’s economic growth is real. Only the blind and the deaf will maintain that it is not real.
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