Hub for flying hospital

Star: TAIPING: Tekah airport, one of the country’s oldest having been built by the British in 1940, has been chosen as the hub for Global Flying Hospitals (GFH), an international body that brings humanitarian medical support to developing countries.
Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Mohd Tajol Rosli Ghazali said the flying hospital's local representatives had picked Tekah over a few shortlisted sites recently and a memorandum of understanding (MoU) is expected to be signed within a few months.
He said GFH plans to use the Tekah airport as its landing hub to cater for its A310A Airbus aircrafts, to fly in patients and supplies.
Tajol Rosli said Mercy Malaysia had recently signed an MoU with GFH, enabling the former to operate flying hospitals during emergency crises around the region.
(At the signing ceremony, GFH founder and chairman Neil Newton had said that the body intends to form a fleet of 10 large aircraft and supplementary helicopters and smaller planes to help Mercy create a broader footprint to meet the needs of the people in various regions in emergencies and disasters.)
Tajol Rosli said that the Tekah airport refurbishment was part of a RM3bil plan by the private sector, subject to Federal Government approval.
“The expansion of Tekah airport’s runway will entail the acquisition of 450ha of land and some (terraced) houses located around its fringes,” he said, adding that no terminal would be built other than a few small offices to house the Immigration and Customs Departments.