MALAYSIA is renovating Kuala Lumpur International Airport's Terminal 2 at a cost of M$25 million (HK$75 million) for it to be ready to handle ASEAN flights by October this year. Visitors to Malaysia who have been used to taking the country's domestic flights at the airport's Terminal 2 will now have to board their planes at the new Terminal 3. The 16,300-square-metre terminal building, which has taken 14 months to build at a cost of M$151 million, was opened to the public in December last year. The building has 32 check-in counters. Terminal 3 will be able to handle 10.75 million passengers by 1998 compared with the 4.4 million handled previously at Terminal 2. It will also be able to handle a maximum peak-hour passenger load of 2,600 people by 1998 compared to 1,100 at Terminal 2 in 1992. The new terminal has 12 holding lounges, power-curve conveyor belts for luggage, 400 parking bays, two restaurants and 15 toilets. There is an Electronic Flight Display System linked to the Malaysia Airlines (MAS) complex terminal to give flight information to all three terminals. The terminal has seven operational aircraft parking bays, while another four, including two Airbus aircraft bays, will be added by this month. With the departure lounge and parking bays a short distance away, passengers will no longer be bused to and from the aircraft as was done at Terminal 2.
