Miri Airport

Miri Airport Lapangan Terbang Miri
IATA: MYY – ICAO: WBGR
Summary
Airport type	Public
Owner	Government of Malaysia
Operator	Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad
Serves	Miri, Sarawak
Location	Miri, Sarawak
Hub for	MASwings, Awan Inspirasi
Time zone	MST (UTC+08:00)
Elevation AMSL	59 ft / 18 m
Coordinates
Map
MYY Location in East Malaysia
Runways
Direction Length Surface m ft 02/20 2,745 9,006 Asphalt
Statistics (2014)
Passenger 2,363,080 ( 6.3%) Airfreight (tonnes) 8,029 ( 18.1%) Aircraft movements 49,204 ( 3.4%)
Sources: Official web site AIP Malaysia

Miri Airport (IATA: MYY, ICAO: WBGR) is an airport located 9.5 km (5.9 mi) south east of Miri, a city in the state of Sarawak, Malaysia. The airport is the 6th busiest airport in Malaysia, and the 2nd busiest in Sarawak.

Miri Airport is a major hub for MASWings which took over most of the mainly rural domestic services from FlyAsianXpress. The location in the middle of Malaysian Borneo and close to the border of Brunei makes it a suitable hub for rural air services and an important gateway to Sarawak. In 2014, Miri Airport is the sixth busiest airport in terms of aircraft movements and the sixth busiest in terms of passengers handled, there were 2,363,080 passenger movements, and 49,204 aircraft movements in the airport.

Miri Airport used to be the second largest airport in Sarawak, after Kuching International Airport. However, the position was overtaken by Sibu Airport in July 2012 after the upgrading and expansion of Sibu Airport's terminal.

History

As population of Miri Town grows, the need for a larger airport forced the government to search for a new site to relief the traffic in Lutong Airport. A site to the south east of the town centre was selected. Miri Airport was fully functional post 1980s.

Facilities

Situated in Jalan Airport, Miri Airport is 9.5 km (5.9 mi) south east of Miri's city centre. Miri Airport is the busiest domestic airport in Malaysia in terms of passenger and aircraft movement. The airport has a terminal which can accommodate up to 2 million passengers annually.

Runway

Miri Airport is serviced with a 2,745 m × 60 m (9,006 ft × 197 ft) runway, designated Runway 02/20, and a partial taxiway at a width of 23 m (75 ft). Runway 02 is equipped with Instrument Landing System (ILS) and high intensity simple approach lights whereas Runway 20 has high intensity Cat 1 precision approach lights installed. Other aids include: DVOR/DME, NDB and PAPI (slope 3°).

Terminal

The two-storey terminal building is able to handle up to 2 million passenger per annum. The terminal has been operating beyond its designed limits since 2012.

Airside view of Miri Airport.

Hangars

There is a hangar for general aviation and an Awan Inspirasi hangar 500 m from the terminal building. The general aviation apron GA2 is a small distance away from GA1 apron, which was completed in 2011. The Awan Inspirasi hangar and GA2 were designed to accommodate 4 helicopters up to Sikorsky S92. MASkargo and Gading Sari each maintains a hangar less than 50 m away from the terminal building.

Check-in counters

There are a total of 15 check-in counters, of which 6 of them are Malaysia Airlines/MASwings check-in counters and 4 for AirAsia. There are also 2 AirAsia self check-in kiosks, both located near the side entrance of the airport.

Baggage claims

There are a total of 3 conveyor belts in the baggage reclaim hall.

A MASwings ATR72 parked next to a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 737.

Immigration

Sarawak controls its own immigration autonomy. The exercised laws require all passengers travelling with any flights from outside Sarawak (including all flights from Peninsular Malaysia, the state of Sabah, Federal Territory of Labuan and other countries) to go through the immigration screening at the first entry of any Sarawakian airport.

Shops and food outlets

Several shops and F&B outlets can be found in the airport, including Starbucks, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Marrybrown and Famous Amos. Malaysia Airlines/MASwings and AirAsia each has a sales office in the airport. Malindo Air also maintains its sales office in the first floor of the airport, just outside the departure hall, even though it has suspended flights to Miri from Kuala Lumpur indefinitely.

Departure gates

There are two aprons in the airport: Apron 'A' and Apron 'B'. The expansion of Apron 'B' was completed in 2014. Apron 'A' has 4 aircraft parking bays, including Gates A1, A2, A3 and B1. Gates A1 through A3 are fitted with aerobridges. Gates A1, A2 and B1 are for narrowbody aircraft such as Boeing 737 or Airbus A320 and equivalent while Gate A3 is optimised for widebody aircraft like Airbus A330 or Boeing 777. Apron 'B' is restricted to Fokker F50 and ATR 72 aircraft or smaller. It is primarily used by MASwings and it parks 3 ATR 72 and 4 DHC-6 Twin Otter. The aprons are now undergoing yet another expansion.

Airasia Boeing 737-300 in Miri Airport in 2006.

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

Airlines	Destinations
AirAsia	Johor Bahru, Kota Kinabalu, Kuala Lumpur–International, Kuching, Penang, Singapore
Malaysia Airlines	Kuala Lumpur–International, Kuching, Singapore
Malaysia Airlines operated by MASwings	Ba'kelalan, Bario, Bintulu, Kota Kinabalu, Kuching, Labuan, Lawas, Limbang, Long Akah, Long Banga, Long Lellang, Long Seridan, Marudi, Mukah, Mulu, Sibu

Cargo

Airlines	Destinations
Transmile Air Services Cargo	Kota Kinabalu, Kuala Lumpur–International
DHL Express Cargo operated by Transmile Air Services	Kota Kinabalu, Kuala Lumpur–International
Neptune Air Cargo	Kota Kinabalu, Kuala Lumpur–International

Traffic and statistics

Annual passenger numbers and aircraft statistics

Year	Passengers handled	Passenger % Change	Cargo (tonnes)	Cargo % Change	Aircraft Movements	Aircraft % Change
2003	1,377,312		3,881		43,460
2004	1,509,684	9.6	4,721	21.6	45,269	4.2
2005	1,594,855	5.6	5,392	14.2	42,865	5.3
2006	1,559,379	2.2	4,080	24.3	42,680	0.4
2007	1,454,167	6.7	3,564	12.6	35,502	16.8
2008	1,537,840	5.7	4,146	16.3	38,172	7.5
2009	1,620,345	5.4	3,921	5.4	41,996	10.0
2010	1,694,915	4.6	6,770	72.7	41,682	0.7
2011	1,856,626	9.5	8,198	21.1	43,707	4.9
2012	2,018,415	8.7	9,879	20.5	45,127	3.2
2013	2,223,172	10.1	9,800	0.8	47,585	5.4
2014	2,363,080	6.3	8,029	18.1	49,204	3.4

Expansion and upgrades

Passengers visiting Miri has grown steadily over the years after the upgrade of the terminal. Calls to upgrade the gateway to northern Sarawak was voiced as the airport slowly reaches its maximum capacity. On 6 December 2011, The Ministry of Transport, Minister Datuk Abdul Rahim Bakri said that Miri Airport will be expanded further to cater for the growing volume of passengers and cargo passing through it. The expansion project would be implemented under the 11th Malaysia Plan following the increase in air passengers using the airport which was projected to reach two million within the next two years. The airport recorded an increase of 9.75 per cent in passenger traffic during the first nine months of this year where 1.35 million passengers used the airport compared with 1.23 million during the same period last year. Cargo traffic also increased 18.69 per cent during the period under review from 4,849 metric tons to 5,756 metric tons. Miri International Airport is the busiest domestic airport in Malaysia in terms of passenger and aircraft movement.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak tabled the 2014 Budget on October 2013 and it was announced that Miri Airport would be among the five airports in the state and Sabah to be upgraded with a RM312 million allocation. The other airports were Sibu and Mukah Airports and Kota Kinabalu and Sandakan Airports. Lee also pointed out the need for the airport to have separate terminals catering to domestic and international and rural air services. This includes separate check-in counters and the departure and arrival lounges. The allocation is also said to improve passenger comfort at the airports.

The growing passenger traffic reached an alarming rate in 2014. Appeals to upgrade the airport to cater the growing numbers using Miri Airport were constantly voiced. Miri Airport handles more than 4,000 flights a month, with an average of 125 aircraft landings and take-offs daily, including 62 landings for rural services; with the current airport size, arrival time for incoming flights will be delayed because they have to wait for the other aircraft to depart before it could land at the runway. Traffic congestion during peak hours also pose a problem. An urgent meeting was held by Sarawak Communication Assistant Minister Datuk Lee Kim Shin regarding the matters. There are also talks to introduce more international routes into Miri to further boost the city's economy and to break the tourism bottleneck experienced in Miri as the only international route of Miri-Singapore at present is inadequate.

On 15 December 2014, Lee announced that Miri Airport is getting RM78 million for its extension work, including the extension of the current runway and the aircraft parking apron. Once the extension was completed, the parking apron would be able to accommodate 8 Boeing aircraft and equivalent, 9 ATR 72 and 4 DHC-6 Twin Otter. The extension project also included installing four additional aerobridges, constructing additional runaway, constructing rooftop walkways for domestic passengers and improving the drainage system. The design of the walkways will be based on the walkways found in Low cost carrier terminal (LCCT) of Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) that is now closed.

Future development

When the need arises, the airport can expand towards the south.

Miri Airport at night

Incidents

• On 6 September 1997, Royal Brunei Airlines Flight 238, crashed short of the runway at Miri Airport. All 10 persons on board were killed.

External links

• Miri Airport, Sarawak at Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad
• Current weather for WBGR at NOAA/NWS
• Accident history for MYY at Aviation Safety Network