Rule to only allow passengers to airport, unlikely to be implemented

SEPANG: It is unlikely that the Transport Ministry will implement a rule that only allows air travellers to enter airports in the interest of security.
This is following a statement by the ministry today that any decision made would take into account the businesses of retail outlets in the airports and the practice of Malaysians' who usually send their loved ones off at the terminals.
However, its deputy minister Datuk Ab Aziz Kaprawi assured that a mechanism to heighten airport security would be introduced in the near future to address the issue of security threats.
"We have gotten feedback from the public, many pointing to our Malaysian practice of sending family members off for flights. We have to take care of these sentiments.
"Also, our airports are designed in such a way that they house retail outlets too. This too, the government has to take into consideration," he told a press conference at Sama-Sama Hotel after attending an event, here, today.
Last week, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had said that the government was mulling a proposal to allow only air passengers to enter terminals at major airports in the country as a security measure.
Ab Aziz said the ministry's secretary-general Datuk Seri Saripuddin Kasim has also been directed to contact all relevant departments and agencies, as well as transportation hubs that connect to the airports, to assist and provide input for the new mechanism.
He said the ministry would look into several aspects of security, including screening airport staff prior to entering the terminals, when developing the mechanism.
"We want the Department of Civil Aviation, for example, to come up with a new measure to make sure staff, especially contract and foreign workers, are screened. We don't want them to slip into our system," he said.
However, he declined to disclose further details of the said mechanism until it has been finalised.
Ab Aziz added that the KL International Airport would undergo its next security audit by 2018. The last audit was in 2011.