Budget carrier AirAsia's ambitious plan to build its own airport has come under heavy fire on the Internet, with among the key detractors being no less than former prime minister turned blogger Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

AirAsia chief executive Tony Fernandes said he was willing to meet Mahathir to explain why the budget airline was pushing to build a RM1.6 billion low-cost carrier terminal (LCCT) in Labu, Negeri Sembilan.

tony fernandez interview 220109 06 He was convinced that Mahathir, who had backed AirAsia when he was the prime minister, would give him the opportunity to tell his side of the story.

"Dr Mahathir gave us the (airline) licence and we owe him a lot for giving us the licence. I don't think he detracts against us, I mean if you read it (his blog), he detracts against the airport plan," said Fernandes in an interview with Malaysiakini yesterday.

"But he hasn't heard all sides of the story. I don't have access to him and he doesn't see our problems. I dare say he has not even been to the LCCT. And so maybe when he's given a chance to see...".

Mahathir, in a posting last Saturday in his Cet Det blog , has questioned the need for a new LCCT outside of the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA).

According to the former premier, KLIA has enough land for four additional terminals and three runways to handle up to 125 million passengers a year.

airport low cost carrier terminal malaysia lcct AirAsia is expecting 15 million passengers by end of this year and up to 27 million by 2014. The current LCCT can only handle 10 million passengers and this will be increased to 15 million passengers when a new wing opens in two months.

"In his blog, he has congratulated AirAsia for having received these numbers of passengers. He congratulated our presentation. He still has questions, and his views and a lot of people's views are 'why can't it be built here (KLIA)?' And we're trying to argue that the 'why', (and) articulate it.

"Tun (Mahathir) is very learned, he gave us the chance - we have built this airline. Hopefully we will be given a chance to show our side of the story," he told Malaysiakini at AirAsia's headquarters in LCCT in Sepang.

Fernandes to meet Najib next Friday

The AirAsia boss will also be meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak next Friday to press his case for the new airport, called KLIA-East @ Labu.

While the cabinet has given the green light for the new LCCT in Labu last month, there has been a public outcry over the necessity of four airports serving Kuala Lumpur.

There is however a possibility that LCCT in Labu could be mothballed if the government can iron out a peace deal between airport operator Malaysian Airport Berhad - which has plans to build another LCCT in KLIA - and AirAsia.

labu low cost carrier terminal lcct 060109 AirAsia has a long-running turf war with MAB, a government-linked company and the operator of the overcrowded LCCT, where hundreds of passengers are forced to sit on benches haphazardly placed outside the building.

Fernandes does not rule out keeping AirAsia in KLIA but stated two key conditions, one of which is the budget carrier's demand for low airport fees which will allow it to slash fares.

"What would make us stay? Low charges and an airport we believe can be done at the right time, (and) in time.

"I have enough headaches trying to fight for routes and defending ourselves against the blogs. We have the worst financial crisis in the history of mankind so do you think I really want to go out and take on another challenge (of building a new airport)?

"I think we (AirAsia) will die if we don't resolve it. There won't be an AirAsia. It's that serious. So what do you do? You take things into your own hands, and you try and do something."

He said that he "panicked" when he heard that MAB talked about its new LCCT in KLIA being ready in 2014, and even that it was not at all certain that the deadline will be met.

"I literally panicked. I was on a flight coming back from Hyderabad. I went round looking all over the place for land," he said.

Swamp land in KLIA

He said that he first explored land in the existing LCCT but found much of it was unsuitable.

tony fernandez interview 220109 02 "This (LCCT) was our first port of call. We talked to the government about (whether we) can build something here. We couldn't really find anything that we thought could be efficient. It was just swamp land and it would take one year to fill it up and RM400 million.

"And then we had other problems. If we build our terminal, you know MAB will argue that 'oh no, we (cannot charge) the terminal fees, but we use the terminal fees for the runway'. So they will have separate aeronautical charges."

He stressed that AirAsia needs to keep charges low if it was to slash fares.

According to Fernandes, he went as far as Perak to search for land for the new airport.

"I went all over the place. We thought Perak, were looking at land in Slim River or something. We went to Selangor, they said they have no land. We went to Negeri (Sembilan). We went everywhere.

"We looked at Carey Island and looked further south from here and then suddenly Labu came along. So we thought: great, the government can't object to that. It's right by KLIA, so there's connectivity. We'll privately fund everything."

air asia pc labu low cost carrier terminal lcct 080109 airport terminal sketch 02 AirAsia said the new airport, which will be built in two years, can handle 30 million passengers and has the capacity to expand to 50 million passengers.

Whether KLIA-East @ Labu will go ahead is probably Najib's first major decision as the incoming prime minister.

His decision will signal how his government will balance its need to protect state-controlled companies such as MAB and the need to encourage private entrepreneurship.

Malaysiakini will publish the full interview with Tony Fernandes beginning next Wednesday. Don't miss it.