The request was made after Mavcom received a letter from AirAsia in August 2019

By RAHIMI YUNUS / Pic By BERNAMA

LOW-COST carrier AirAsia Group Bhd had not responded to a request for information on complaints of long queues at immigration counters in Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (KLIA2), Malaysian Aviation Commission (Mavcom) said.

The request was made after Mavcom received a letter from AirAsia in August 2019, saying the company was documenting the congestion daily.

“We also made it clear in our reply to AirAsia that Mavcom was scheduled to meet with the Immigration Department of Malaysia and requested for the details to be provided to the commission prior to this meeting, as the availability of such information could be helpful in that discussion.

“Despite several reminders being sent to AirAsia requesting for these details, there was no response provided,” Mavcom said in a statement yesterday.

The commission also said it had requested for details of the congestion claims made by AirAsia ahead of a scheduled meeting with the Immigration Department of Malaysia. However, according to Mavcom, AirAsia did not respond to the request for information.

The commission said it proceeded to meet with the Immigration Department DG and the director of Immigration of KLIA to discuss the immigration queues matter.

“Work is on schedule to complete a further eight service quality elements, including those related to queuing times for immigration, check-in, customs, as well as kerbside.

The commission will monitor the queuing time performance at all these areas within the Airports QoS (quality of service) framework to ensure improved services by all relevant parties involved,” it added.

To date, Mavcom said 20 service quality elements at KLIA and KLIA2 have been implemented as part of the Airports QoS framework, which is designed to elevate service levels at airports in Malaysia.

Last week, AirAsia Malaysia CEO Riad Asmat and AirAsia X Bhd CEO Benyamin Ismail claimed that visitors had to queue for over an hour at immigration gates, especially during peak hours from 3am to 7am, 2pm to 7pm and 9pm to midnight.

“It has gotten so bad that countless guests have complained to us about missing their connecting flights, as well as important meetings and appointments,” the two CEOs said.

They directed the issue to Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB), saying floor space and configuration at KLIA2, including the ability to add more counters and extend the queuing area, fall under the airport operator’s responsibility.

In a statement, MAHB said an unusual long immigration queue time on arrival at KLIA which occurred on Oct 16 was an isolated incident as immigration clearance at KLIA2 is typically within an average of 10 minutes.

The company said the utilisation of immigration counters was at 70% during the unusual long queue.