A member of MMC Group, Senai Airport Terminal Services Sdn Bhd (SATS), had successfully handled four million passengers in a single year for the first time since its opening in 1974.

The airport is currently operating at its maximum capacity of 4 million passengers per annum and is expanding its terminal to create more capacity in future.The RM20 million terminal expansion project will include the extension of the existing arrival and departure halls towards the south of the terminal building. 

Key elements include the construction of four new departure and boarding gates, additional new seating area, covered walkway connecting to aircraft parking bays, installation of additional baggage handling system and installation of escalator and elevator to link the existing terminal building to the new area.

SATS chairman Datuk Seri Che Khalib Mohamad Noh said there has been a steady growth and demand by its airline partners to increase capacity that make this achievement possible. 

He said "Since taking over the airport in 2003, SATS managed to handle a total accumulation of more than 33 million passengers with a consistent double-digit growth since 2013.”

“This achievement is not possible without the support of our airline partners, government agencies, local authority, our customers and the people of Johor,”.

SATS chief executive officer Md Derick Basir said passenger in 2019 will hit 4.2 million, a significant increase of 20 per cent as compared to 3.5 million passengers statistics in 2018.

"The growth is mainly attributed by the increased capacity created by the introduction of new routes and the additional flight frequencies to existing routes such as Kuala Lumpur, Penang, and Seoul," said Md Derick.

Senai Airport handles an average of over 11,500 passengers and 110 flight movements daily with 80 per cent of its operations and passengers contributed by AirAsia. 

Deputy Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture Malaysia Muhammad Bakhtiar Wan Chik said the government has set targets in conjunction with Visit Malaysia 2020 and Visit Johor 2020 campaigns.

Bakhtair said "The Johor state government has set a target of 8.4 million over-nighting tourists and a total of RM18.4 million visitors for 2020 and we are hoping to see an economic spillover of RM29.4 billion.

"With Budget Johor 2020 allocating RM15 million, the highest ever for tourism promotion in the state, we hope to be able to achieve stellar returns in the coming year,”.