Wilfred Yap Says Sarawak Needs a World-Class Airport, Not Quick Fixes Wilfred Yap

suppadmin | August 20, 2025

Kota Sentosa Assemblyman Wilfred Yap has criticised Chong Chieng Jen’s call to expand Kuching International Airport (KIA) instead of building a new international airport at Tanjung Embang, saying the proposal is short-sighted and ignores Sarawak’s long-term needs.

Yap said KIA has already reached its physical limits, with no room to extend its runway to accommodate larger, long-haul aircraft. “This locks Sarawak out of future aviation growth,” he stressed, adding that the RM100 million expansion plan is merely cosmetic.

He explained that the Tanjung Embang project is designed to go beyond passenger travel, linking the airport with Sarawak’s deep-sea port to create a regional logistics hub. “This reflects Premier Abang Zohari’s vision of positioning Sarawak as a competitive economy with integrated air, sea, and digital connectivity,” Yap said.

Drawing comparisons with the construction of KLIA in the 1990s, Yap said aviation planning must always be forward-looking. “If Malaysia had kept patching up Subang, KLIA as we know it today would not exist. Sarawak now faces the same choice,” he added.

Yap said the new airport could be completed by 2035 and urged the Federal Government to fully fund it, given Sarawak’s large contributions to national revenue. He also pointed to the state’s aviation ambitions through its own airline, Air Borneo.

“A modern airport and our own airline will unlock opportunities for the next 50 years, not just patch ceilings for the next five. History has proven critics of KLIA wrong, and it will do the same with critics of this project,” he said.