has purposed on flight resumption between Tawau and Makassar due to strong demand for the route. While in Indonesia, the head of Nunukan Deputy for Infrastructure has also requested a direct air link between Nunukan and Tawau after recording healthy annual passenger and cargo maritime traffic, with 30,000 passengers commuting between the two areas per-month. The airport is also slated for a further expansion after registering 1.64 million passengers in 2018, surpassing its original capacity of 1.4 million users. With 19.4% growth in 2018, it is the fourth in terms of passenger growth in the country (after Kuala Lumpur, Kota Kinabalu and Penang International Airport). The expansion is expected to commenced by the end of 2019, allowing the airport to handle 2.5 million passengers annually with an upgrade to the existing facilities together with a better shopping experience. In 2021, due to the pandemic which has caused supply chain export disruption for Tawau, Maskargo launched seasonal twice weekly flights to Hong Kong using an Airbus A330-300 from Malaysia Airlines that has been converted to P2Cargo configuration. As of 2022, Tawau Airport is yet to solve its ongoing capacity issues. Issues ranging from lack of immigration lanes, limited available seats for passengers to wait at the terminal area to limited aircraft bays during peak hours has caused unnecessary congestion. Lobby for airport expansion has been sought by local politicians and Malaysian Airports over the years but nothing has been approved by the Ministry of Transport. A study from MAVCOM in 2019 has shown that Tawau airport was operating at an excess 130% of its capacity. This was caused by the surge of domestic air travel that has resulted in increased flight frequencies, along with Tawau being the sole feeder for tourists getting to Semporna while no capacity adjustment has been done on the airport to cater this over the years. Airlines and destinations Cargo Traffic and statistics Traffic Statistics See also Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation Far East Air Force (Royal Air Force) List of former Royal Air Force stations References External links Tawau Airport, Sabah at Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad Tawau Airports in Sabah