Four-Day Taiping Air Festival Set To Attract 10,000 Visitors

TAIPING, Dec 21 (Bernama) -- The four-day Taiping Air Festival (FUT) 2024 held at the Tekah Airport here is set to attract almost 10,000 visitors.

The maiden festival was organised by Kelab Sukan Udara Taiping (Kesut), in collaboration with the likes of Tourism Perak and Taiping Municipal Council (MPT).

Perak Rural Development, Plantation, Agriculture and Food Industry Committee chairman Datuk Mohd Zolkafly Harun expressed appreciation and praised the organisation of the event, which began on Thursday and ends tomorrow.

"This festival not only attracted Malaysians but also foreign participants, namely from Russia, the United Kingdom, Thailand, Singapore and Pakistan. They took part in events like aircraft fly-in, microlight joyride, paramotor and parachuting.

"Interestingly, this festival has revived the history of the Tekah Airport area, which is one of Taiping’s most valuable heritage treasures,” he told reporters after representing Perak Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Saarani Mohamad in officiating the launch of the festival here today.

Mohd Zolkafly has also proposed for the FUT to be included in the Visit Perak Year (TMP) and the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture (MOTAC) calendar as an annual event.

"This air festival can not only rev up the country's tourism sector with foreign participation but also improve the economy of the community around Taiping through the organisation of international-level events,” he said.

He said the Larut, Matang and Selama (LM) District and Land Office is currently in the gazettement process with the state government so that the historical value of the area continues to be preserved. 

Built in 1929, the Tekah Airport is significant in the history of Malaysia when Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta, who later became the president and vice-president of Indonesia, landed at the airport on Aug 12, 1945, for a meeting with Dr Burhanuddin Helmi and Ibrahim Yaacob, who were leaders of a Malaysian political party, to discuss the possibility of joining Malaya and Indonesia when Indonesia achieved independence.

The airport also achieved fame through the famous American aviator Amelia Earhart, who was said to have landed there on June 7, 1937, to refuel. She was named the first woman to make a solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean. 

-- BERNAMA