DHL explores Senai Airport, Malaysia as a possible base

DHL Worldwide Express is exploring the possibility of setting up shop at Senai Airport in the southern Malaysian state of Johor. (4/9/2003)

‘They have approached us but it is purely exploratory,’ according to Yasmin Aladad Khan, general manager of DHL in Malaysia.

DHL joins a growing list of express package delivery companies that have been approached by Senai Airport Terminal Services (Sats), which is in the midst of taking over the small Malaysian airport located north of Changi International Airport in Singapore.

Sats – controlled by Malaysian port magnate Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary – has also approached Schenker of Germany to convince it to use Senai Airport as its regional hub. Other candidates are said to be Federal Express and United Parcel Service. In his bid to transform Senai Airport into a regional cargo hub to rival Changi, Syed Mokhtar is said to be offering a stake in the airport project to one of the foreign air express companies.

The strategy is reminiscent of his coup at his Port of Tanjung Pelepas (PTP) in Johor three years ago. Maersk Sealand – the world’s largest shipping company – acquired 30 per cent of PTP and moved its operations from the Singapore port operated by PSA Corp. PTP also managed to win over Evergreen Marine, PSA’s second biggest client. It will be another major coup for Syed Mokhtar should Sats succeed in wooing DHL to Senai Airport.

DHL currently has six major hubs in the Asia-Pacific region – Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok, Seoul, Sydney, and Tokyo.