PUTRAJAYA, Feb 9 — The Malaysian government announced today it has agreed in principle to a new Operating Agreement (OA 2023) between Malaysia Airport Holdings Berhad (MAHB), including establishing a new development trust account solely for airport development through contributions from airport users themselves.

Dubbed the Airport Development Fund (ADF) and a game-changer, Transport Minister Anthony Loke said contributions from airport users such as the public and airline operators will be channelled to the new trust account under OA 2023.

“With this new operating agreement framework, there is flexibility in the method of funding airport development costs. We can still maintain the existing funding method but now MAHB has their own alternative through any suitable investment recovery model mechanism.

“Fifty per cent of the Passenger Service Charge (PSC) component that is taken into account in the calculation of the User Fee will be channelled to the ADF trust account.

“The percentage of PSC or percentage of other components in the User Fee to be contributed to the ADF account will be reviewed every three years,” he told a press conference at the ministry here.

Loke explained that MAHB was only in charge of managing airports under the existing MAHB agreement and any form of airport development cost funding must be sourced from government allocations under its annual development expenditures, thus putting a strain on government coffers.

Under OA 2023, Loke also said the new material terms will see MAHB operate, manage, maintain and develop 39 airports and airfields (Short Take-Off and Landing Airports, or STOLports) in Malaysia for the period until 2069.

According to MAHB's website, the company currently operates five international airports, 17 domestic and 17 STOLports in Malaysia.

* A previous version of this story's headline contained errors which have since been corrected.

https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2023/02/09/minister-under-new-deal-with-mahb-travellers-to-also-fund-airport-developments-along-with-govt/54105