Since last year, Indonesian airline TransNusa has routinely shuttled passengers between Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur two to three times each day.

But when its Airbus A320 plane touched down outside Malaysia’s commercial capital on Aug. 1, it was hailed with arcing water cannons and a congratulatory banner. Flight attendants offered passengers commemorative pins.

The flight was exceptional because it was landing at Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport — also known as Subang Airport and Subang SkyPark — rather than Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) as all TransNusa’s flights to the city had previously done.

As the commemorative pins noted, no jet-operated international airline flight had arrived at Subang in 26 years. But now many more are coming. The same day TransNusa’s plane landed, a Boeing 737 belonging to Batik Air, the full-service arm of Indonesia’s low-cost Lion Air Group, set off for Penang. Batik and other airlines will launch more new Subang routes over the coming weeks.

“Subang SkyPark offers a unique advantage with its proximity to Kuala Lumpur,” said Manoharan Periasamy, director general of Tourism Malaysia.

“This makes travel incredibly convenient and attractive for both local and international tourists,” he said. “We are excited about the potential increase in the tourism industry with this new connectivity.”

The revival of commercial jet flights at Subang and newly launched upgrades to its facilities mirror developments at Bangkok’s Don Mueang International Airport and Jakarta’s Halim Perdanakusuma International Airport. They too in recent years have clawed back some of the activity ceded when their cities opened new flagship airports that initially put them largely out of business.

In each place, national authorities are seeking a balance between focusing activity on the country’s main gateway to maximize networking benefits with sustaining an alternative airport to relieve capacity strains, handle VIP and corporate jet flights, and support other policy priorities.

Singapore has also wrestled with these concerns while Phnom Penh, Manila and Ho Chi Minh City are due to face the dual airport question soon as they prepare to launch new showcase gateways and then face the need to recoup heavy construction costs.

In Northeast Asian metropolises like Shanghai, Seoul, Tokyo, Osaka and Taipei, former gateway airports have operated for many years as domestic flight hubs, reflecting conscious planning.

Given the sprawling size of contemporary international gateways, authorities around the world have often been forced to locate new ones far from central business districts. While a closer “city airport” may have convenience value for many residents — including time-pressed senior government officials — they can be a nuisance for others in terms of noise, particularly late at night.

Southeast Asia has generally taken a more ad hoc approach. Authorities in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand explicitly forced airlines to shift jets to their new national gateways when they opened. Officials only belatedly saw value in the old gateways as limitations of the showcase airports became clear and improvement projects dragged on. In some cases, Southeast Asian officials have also embraced alternative airports as local development engines.

Southeast Asian aviation policymaking is complicated simply by how fast the sector is growing. Boeing forecasts that intra-Southeast Asian travel will grow faster than travel within or between any other markets in the world over the next 20 years, with the exception of China-North America routes, a special case as they have yet to recover much from COVID-era constraints.

Boeing projects that travelers flying within Southeast Asia will rack up more than five times as much mileage in 2043 as they did in 2023. The plane maker forecasts that travel between Southeast and South Asia will grow almost as quickly as intraregional travel.

At the same time, Boeing forecasts that Southeast Asia’s airline fleet will expand three and a half fold to 4,960 jets by 2043 from 1,430 last year as the region’s share of global airliners doubles to 10%. Rising consumer incomes and the spread of the low-cost carrier model will drive this growth, the company believes.

At some gateways in Northeast Asia and elsewhere, the city airport concept is sustained by passengers willing to pay a premium for convenience. It is not yet clear whether many Southeast Asian travelers are ready to accept the notion.

AirAsia, Malaysia’s homegrown budget airline group, is to start A320 flights from Subang to Kuching and Kota Kinabalu on Borneo next week. Tony Fernandes, chief executive of parent company Capital A, said last month that his group would create a service class comparable to full-service airlines to feature on Subang flights.

“This is a business city airport, which people are probably prepared to pay a little bit more because time and value is there,” he said at a news conference.

According to fare checks by Nikkei Asia on the Kuala Lumpur-Kuching route, AirAsia is pricing Subang flights in the coming months at a premium of around 35% to 45% to KLIA flights.

“Subang Airport holds a special place in my heart, and it’s exciting to witness its resurgence as one of the key players in Malaysia’s aviation landscape,” Fernandes said. “The government’s decision to revitalize the airport into a regional aviation hub aligns perfectly with our mission to continue revolutionizing the aviation industry.”

Bernard Francis, chief executive of TransNusa, has been similarly effusive about Subang flights by his carrier, which is repositioning itself as a premium airline.

“This route will allow passengers from Subang Airport to reach Kuala Lumpur in a mere 19 to 20 minutes by car, with only 23 kilometers between the two locations,” he said, comparing that with 59 km for KLIA. “We will continuously aim to provide our passengers with new creative routes and accommodate their need to save time.”

Some area business travelers could indeed be persuaded to pay up for Subang flights.

Pang Kong Soon, a local businessman who was flying out of the airport last week, said its proximity to downtown Kuala Lumpur represented real value for him given his frequent travels to other Malaysian cities. Gerald Lee, who flies monthly to Singapore for business meetings, likes the laidback atmosphere of Subang. “Just sitting here, chilling and listening to free music is super relaxing,” he said.

Not all of Subang’s new flights will target the business market. Firefly, the discount unit of Malaysia Airlines, is to begin B737 flights to Penang and Kota Kinabalu next week, adding to the domestic turboprop flights it already operates from the airport. Scoot, the low-cost wing of Singapore Airlines, is to start flying A320s into Subang next month from Singapore.

Meanwhile, some locals are nostalgic about the revival of Subang, which opened in 1965 as the main international gateway for the newly independent and unified nation of Malaysia.

“My fondest memory of the airport was when Michael Jackson arrived at Terminal 1” in 1996, said Jin Lim, who runs a Kuala Lumpur production house. “We were all so starstruck.”

For others, the return of jets to Subang is more of an annoyance. Michelle Ng, a lawmaker in the state of Selangor, home to the airport, noted recently on her Facebook page that she had been raising noise concerns with the national government for a year.

After thanking officials for moving last month to bar flights between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., she said, “I myself live along the flight path and know first-hand how it is like when cargo flights take off at 12 a.m. and 3 a.m.”

Some industry consultants question the official logic of Subang’s revival.

“KLIA is one of the few airports in the region with sufficient capacity” to add more flights, said Brendan Sobie, head of Singapore-based Sobie Aviation.

He expects Subang’s service expansion to come at a cost to KLIA, arguing that if officials felt the need to add to Subang’s offerings, they could have just added domestic jet services without opening international routes too. “They do risk some cannibalization,” he said.

New international services from Subang were unthinkable not long ago. In 2002, following the opening of an express train line to KLIA, remaining domestic jet flights were moved to the new $3 billion airport from Subang, leaving behind just turboprop flights and private planes. The next year, Subang’s Terminal 1, where Michael Jackson had been greeted, was demolished.

The airport’s current revival was sparked by a 2021 proposal from local property developer WCT Holdings, a company controlled by tycoon Desmond Lim and best known for luxury mall Pavilion KL. Three years earlier, WCT had acquired control of a company holding concessions to run Subang’s car park, business aviation center and retail areas.

In its proposal, WCT asked to be given overall management control of Subang and adjacent lands and for the return of jet flights. In return, it pledged to invest in a new passenger terminal, an improved business jet center, shopping malls, warehouses, a convention center and a medical center.

Seeing this as a threat to its status, Subang’s owner/operator, Malaysia Airports Holdings, responded with its own revival plan. The proposal from the state-controlled company, which also runs KLIA and 37 other domestic airports as well as one in Istanbul, was quickly embraced by the Malaysian government.

Under the Subang Airport Regeneration Plan, adopted last year, the airfield’s annual passenger handling capacity is to rise to 8 million by 2030 — a level half the amount it handled before KLIA opened.

Malaysia Airports will also develop new business aviation facilities and areas for industrial aerospace activities and aircraft maintenance and repair. WCT, which still stands to benefit from the rival revival blueprint, is to bear an undisclosed share of the cost of the 3.7 billion ringgit ($834.9 million) project.

A Malaysia Airports official predicted at a news conference last month that the redevelopment would create 8,000 jobs, while Transport Minister Anthony Loke insisted that the return of jet flights would not “cannibalize” KLIA.

“We aim to develop this airport as a city airport and also as an aviation ecosystem,” Loke said. “It’s not just an airport, but the surrounding areas will be developed as well.”

Khair Mirza, Singapore-based head of airport investment research at advisory company Modalis Infrastructure Partners, believes the plan can work.

“Subang serves as a readily available option for Kuala Lumpur to unlock the regional connectivity and regionally driven economic growth rightly identified as current and future drivers of Southeast Asian growth and prosperity,” he said.

In Bangkok, Don Mueang lost out on domestic jet flights for just six months after Suvarnabhumi Airport opened in 2006. Officials begrudgingly allowed airlines to shift routes back in early 2007 as they sorted out problems with the runways and taxiways at the new field.

Five years later, the Thai government officially designated Don Mueang as Bangkok’s main gateway for low-cost carriers to ease congestion at Suvarnabhumi as expansion projects there were delayed.

With Don Mueang regaining importance, the government reopened a second terminal to specifically handle domestic flights while expanding the main terminal in a race to catch up with surging traffic. By 2019, the airport was handling 41 million passengers a year, surpassing its pre-Suvarnabhumi peak of 38 million.

An ongoing 36.83 billion baht ($1 billion) third-phase expansion at Don Mueang is to add another international terminal and other facilities by 2028. By then, authorities intend for it to be able to process 50 million passengers a year. “There is a real squeeze on capacity,” Sobie said.

In Jakarta, airport development has also been complicated.

Soekarno-Hatta International Airport originally opened in 1985 with a focus on domestic flights, taking the place of Kemayoran Airport. Halim Perdanakusuma, which had been the hub for international flights, initially kept that role until Soekarno-Hatta was expanded in 1991. The older airport was then left to handle charter and VIP flights and business jets.

But over the following years, traffic rose faster at Soekarno-Hatta than its handling capacity so the government decided in 2014 to reopen Halim to domestic jet services.

J

et airliners share Jakarta’s Halim Perdanakusuma International Airport with Indonesian Air Force aircraft and private planes. (Photo by Dimas Ardian)

For airline companies, operating flights to two different airports in a city can be costly, as they need to pay for duplicative facilities, support services and ground staff.

For Lion Air Group, which has its main hub at Soekarno-Hatta, its response to this problem has been to use Halim mainly for services by premium arm Batik Air, targeting residents of the east side of Jakarta willing to pay for convenience. “They can cut short their travel time to the airport,” said spokesperson Danang Mandala Prihantoro.

In Singapore, Seletar Airport plays the kind of circumscribed role that Subang previously did, handling just turboprop services as well as private jet and VIP flights to take pressure off Singapore Changi Airport, the country’s showcase hub. To facilitate this, Seletar’s runway was extended in 2011 and its avionics upgraded.

These works have also supported the development of an aerospace-focused industrial park around Seletar that has attracted companies including Airbus, Bombardier and engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce.

Seletar, which long operated just as an air force base, has never been a major gateway for Singapore, however. It is unclear exactly how much traffic it handles, but officials are said to have rejected multiple airline requests for additional flights.

The Singaporean Transport Ministry twice last year deflected usage queries from members of Parliament. Last November, an official responded to one request by simply saying: “Traffic at Seletar Airport has surpassed pre-COVID levels. Runway utilization is also near capacity.”

Gan Thiam Poh of the ruling People’s Action Party, one of the inquiring legislators and the representative for the Seletar area, told Nikkei Asia last week his constituents would actually welcome more flights because of the convenience of the airport.

Meanwhile, Ho Chi Minh City and Manila are each building huge new airports intended to become the cities’ main international hubs. On the surface, the cities’ plans resemble the Northeast Asian approach of focusing on easing strains at overtaxed existing gateways, enabling them to continue as domestic flight hubs.

Ho Chi Minh City’s new 337 trillion dong ($13.4 billion) Long Thanh International Airport is due to open in 2026. New Manila International Airport, also known as Bulacan International Airport, is not expected to begin operations until at least 2027. It is projected to cost about 740 billion pesos ($13 billion).

In Cambodia, the future of Phnom Penh International Airport (PPIA) exemplifies the complications that more broadly dog Southeast Asia’s development of new hub airports.

Construction at Techo Takhmao International Airport on March 12: Cambodian officials plan to open Phnom Penh’s new international airport next year. (Photo by Hiroki Endo) 

Speaking to Nikkei Asia last week, a senior government official said that all airlines would move from PPIA, which adjoins Pochentong Air Base, when the city’s new $1.5 billion Techo Takhmao International Airport opens next year.

“There is no way to open the Pochentong airport and the new Techo Takhmao International Airport at the same time,” he said.

However, in 2020, Hun Sen, who was then prime minister and now serves as Senate president, said PPIA might continue to handle domestic flights as well as cargo flights, private jets and VIP services after the opening of the new airport.

Earlier this month, Sin Chansereyvutha, a spokesperson for the Cambodian State Secretariat for Civil Aviation, declined to comment on whether domestic flights might stay at PPIA as Hun Sen had earlier suggested.

“The situation might change,” Sin Chansereyvutha said. “If he (Hun Sen) said it, please quote it. There is no clue yet. I can’t say anything.”