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2nd Southeast Asia Workshop on Aerospace Engineering 2017 (SAWAE 2017) Ho Chi Minh University of Technology (HCMUT), Vietnam 27 – 29 October 2017 ECONOMIC IMPACT DUE TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF REGIONAL AIRPORT – A CASE STUDY OF MERSING AIRPORT Wan Zaidi Wan Omar1, Mohamad Amirul Muhammad1,Shabudin Mat1, Abdul Basid Abdul Rahman1, Nazri Nasir1, Mazuriah Said1, Nur Amalina Musa1, Khushairi Amri Kasim1, Nadhirah Mohd Zain1, Kannan Perumal1,4, Tholudin Mat Lazim1, Shuhaimi Mansor1, Mohd Nadzri Md Reba2, Nik Ahmad Ridhwan Nik Mohd1, Kamariah Ismail3 1Department of Aeronautical, Automotive and Off-shore Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 Skudai, Johor Bahru, Malaysia. 2Department of Geoinformation, Faculty of Geoinformation and Real Estate, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 Skudai, Johor Bahru, Malaysia. 3Department of Management, Faculty of Management and Human Resources Development, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 Skudai, Johor Bahru, Malaysia. 4International Business School, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Jalan Sultan Yahya Petra, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Abstract Mersing is a small town on the east coast of Johor, Malaysia. This region has a very high potential tourism development due to its role as the gateway to the tropical islands off the east coast of the Malaysian Peninsular.Mersing is also the southern gateway to the Enadau-Rompin National Park. Mersing itself also has its own attractiveness and could be developed into a vibrant town on its own, but now the development is curtailed by certan factors such as its remoteness and transport and communication difficulties. Improving the connectivity to Mersing is a key factor for economic development of Mersing and its surrounding areas. This study found that the overall development of Mersing is directly linked to the development of transportation and connectivity to the town, especially the development of the Mersing Airport (Lapangan Terbang Mersing, LTM). Primary data was collected by two methods; firstly interviews with authorities and parties directly linked to aviation and airports, the local authorities and corporates that are interested parties to development of airports in Malasyia and Mersing; and secondly by questionaire survey of opinions of local popuplations and tourists visiting Mersing. The results show that the respondents positively support the development of Mersing Airport. The potential economic impactsdue to the airport development to serve Mersing are categorisedinto two parts,the direct impact and the indirect impact. The estimation of the impacts is based on the number of movementsof aircrafts per day and the type of aircraft at the LTM. The mitigating impacts on the environment and other infrastructure development in the region were also looked into. Keywords: small airport development, runway, airport terminal,economic impact, tourism 1 1. Introduction Presently, the only way to reach Mersing is by road transport.The road network Malaysia continues its development system in peninsular Malaysiais well especially its infrastructure which include the developed, and there are no other modes of development of airports. The developments of transport available for Mersing.Other than infrasturcture would then help in improving private vehicles, thepublic transport system of other sectors such as industry, agriculture and express buses and taxis are well established.By the services sector including tourism. The road transport the remoteness of Mersing improvement of communication and transport means the travel would take a long journey infrastructure wouldalso boost downstream time and is very tiring. The travel time to economic impacts, especially the local urban Mersing from Kuala Lumpur, Kuantan, employment and economy(Cassidy & Brown, Singapore and Johor bahru by road would be 6, 2010; Freestone & Wiesel, 2009). 2.5, 3.5 and 2 hours respecetively. Their Mersing is a coastal town on the east distances to Mersing are 450, 197, 170 and 139 coast of Malaysia peninsula, with a population km respectively. of 21,000. It is a crossroad for tourism to go to Mersing and the surrounding areas are the various islands of the South China Sea not served with rail trasport at all. Thus other (great snorkeling and diving, sea views, than road transport, the only alternative is to beautiful beaches), and the Endau-Rompin travel to and from Mersing by air. The National Park (tropical jungle and natural problem is, Mersing has a small airport, with environment). Mersing and the surrounding only a grass strip of 500 m long (250 m reserve area itself have their own charms in beautiful at each end). This airport is only suitable for beaches (town’s beach, Air Papan, Penyabung), small general aviation aircrafts capable of great angling spots and quaint cultures carrying less than 12 passengers. Some dominated by the life of the fishing suitable aircrafts for LTM now is listed in the folks(Wikivoyage, 2017). There is now a Appendix. training centre for sailing sports in Tanjung Resang, about 20 km north of the town. Road distances Mersing-Kuala Lumpur 370 km 6 hours Mersing-Johor Bahru 129 km 2.2 hours Mersing-Kuantan 195 km 2.5 hours Tioman Islands Endau-Rompin National Park Mersing Town Figure 1. Map showing location of Mersing on the East coast of Johor, and the land route to Johor Bahru and Kuantan. 2 Economic development of a region is Therest are utilised as general use, such as for always related to the infrastructure needs of pilot training, general aviation, air navigation, the community in that region, including the recreation flying, and emergency reserve development of airports. Airports can be a airports. There are also small private airports catalyst to economic development of the that are not registered with the DCAM, but are region, but it has to be able to attract a critical in use continuously, such as for agriculture mass of air transport services to that airport. If aviation stations, and for flying clubs. not, the project cost to develop the aiport can Theutilization of airports throughout the be considered as an inefficient capital world is increasing for the biggest airports, expenditure. It is always a fine line between while it is decreasing for small airports. A spending for theoverall development of the small airport is defined by International Air area to the inefficeint capital spending. Transport Association (IATA) and Airports There are evidences from the USA that Council International (ACI) to be airports that airports in cities with expanding population are handle less than 1 million passengers per year able to retain the air services, while others (Regan, 2017; Lian & Rønnevik, 2011). need special incentive programmes (ASIP, The general development in a region can Airport Services Incentive Programme is a US be a contributing factor for other industry to govenrment programme to attract airlines to develop. As example a tourist attraction in a matginal airports) to retain the airline services. region will cause transport services to increase Cities with stagnant populations generally will and the increase in transportation services can not be able to recruit and retain airline services bring in more people. Thus, other businesses to their airports (Ryerson, 2016). Expanding such as hotels and restaurants, local transport population basically promises more passengers services and other related indutries would for the airlines and better local economic expand to cater for the increased arrivals to the prospects which will result in better area(Hakfoort, et al., 2001). affordability to purchase air transport services. This is happening right now in the East In Malaysia, the advent of air transport coast of Johor. There are now investments in deregulation, the introdcution of Low Cost the tourism industry led by Khazanah in Desa Carriers (LCC) had markedly increased the Rhu (Oxford Business Group, 2016) and a demand for air transportation, and thus the potential RM190m investment for Tioman demand for airline to serve more airports, Airport and Marina project on Tioman especially to small cities that were never serve island(World Wildlife Fund Malaysia, by air transportation before. 2004).There is also a government expenditure In a multiple airport scenario, the airport of RM10m nad RM34m to improve the jetty that gives good services would influence and water supply in Tioman respectively, that passengers to use it, although distance plays would impact the tourism industry the most important role in their choice(Harvey, positively(Bernama, 2017; Radzi, 2015). On 1987; Innes & Doucet, 1990). In any case, the negative side the WWF considers the Mersing would have a big catchment area, as airport and marina project in Tioman to be the nearest airports are 136 km (Senai detrimental to the natural environment (World International, and 194 km (Kuantan Airport) Wildlife Fund Malaysia, 2004). away(Innes & Doucet, 1990; Suzuki, et al., Within all these plans, it is very 2003). surprising that there is no plan for Mersing, not According to the Department of Civil even a strategic plan from the development Aviation Malaysia(DCAM), which is the authority of East Coast Economic Region organization responsible for the management (ECERDC, 2016). of air transport in Malaysia, there are a total of In the oil and gas inductry, the 62 airports in Malaysia, of which 38 are in Pengerang Integrated Petroleum Complex operation for scheduled air services.The (PIPC) involved an investment of RM60b military uses13 others,