PETALING JAYA: Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) has been urged to address the problem of worsening congestion at immigration counters at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (klia2) immediately.
Low-cost carrier AirAsia group said the long queues had caused some travellers to miss connecting flights and appointments.
Its chief executive officer, Riad Asmad said that in some cases, travellers had to wait for up to an hour just to get through immigration. “The counters are especially congested during peak hours — from 3am to 7am, 2pm to 7pm and 9pm to midnight,” he said.
“As Malaysia gears up to welcome 30 million foreign tourists for Visit Malaysia Year 2020, the airport is the first place they see. It is shameful that their first experience of our country is one that showcases inefficiency and poor customer service,” he said in a statement today.
AirAsia X chief executive officer Benyamin Ismail alleged that poor design and flawed configuration at the airport was the cause of the problem.
He said the matter had been raised with MAHB in the past but no action had been taken so far.
“We were just given an assurance that adjustments would be made to extend the immigration clearance into areas now occupied by duty-free outlets,” he said.
“However, up to now we have not seen anything done to address the problem and congestion has worsened daily, with some passengers having to endure long queues that stretch all the way back to the disembarkation gates,” he said.
Benyamin applauded the Immigration Department for being “very understanding and helpful” by ensuring that all counters were opened during peak periods.
“Aside from that, there’s not much more they can do as the floor space and configuration at klia2, including the option to add more counters and extend the queuing area, falls under MAHB’s responsibility,” he added.
Benyamin also urged the Malaysian Aviation Commission (Mavcom) to step in as a regulator and aviation consumer protection body to ensure this issue is quickly resolved.
