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Senai International Airport welcomes three-millionth passenger30 Dec 2017, by The Star

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SENAI: Senai International Airport has welcomed its three-millionth passenger of 2017, marking a new milestone in the country's only privately managed airport.

The passenger was 32-year-old Umi Kalsom Roseli, who arrived at the airport at around 4.05pm via AirAsia flight AK 6044 from Kuala Lumpur.

The SJKC Yong Peng Batu Pahat assistant teacher for students with disabilities was on transit from Seoul, South Korea at KLIA2 before boarding the Johor Baru-bound flight.

"It is a good way to end the year and to welcome 2018," she told reporters at the event to mark the three millionth passenger at Senai.

On hand to welcome Umi Kalsom were Johor Tourism, Trade and Consumerism committee chairman Datuk Tee Siew Kiong, Senai Airport Terminal Services Sdn Bhd chief executive officer Md Derick Basir and Tourism Johor director Abdul Malik Ismail.

Umi Kalsom received flight tickets for two to Kolkata, India courtesy of AirAsia, which flies three times weekly from Johor Baru to the Indian city.

Tee said the number of air travellers had increased significantly from 1.99 million passengers in 2013, to 2.3 million in 2014 and then 2.5 million in 2015 and 2.8 million in 2016 before hitting 3.1 million passengers in 2017.

"The number of international air passengers also went up from about 137,000 people in 2013 to 431,000 last year," he said. 

Tee said the majority of the international passengers arriving and departing from Senai were mainland Chinese and Indonesians.

The airport currently connects to 11 domestic routes and seven international destinations, namely Bangkok, Guangzhou, Ho Chi Minh, Jakarta, Kolkata, Macau and Surabaya.