KKIA: Flights resume this morning, runway lights still out

Airport official says the airport can operate during daytime but is unable to say if the flights would be permitted to land or takeoff this evening.

KOTA KINABALU: Flights in and out of the city resumed this morning after all aircraft scheduled to land at the Kota Kinabalu International Airport were turned away on Thursday evening after its runway was plunged into darkness.

Travel agents said thousands of passengers were left stranded and many missed connecting flights as some 30 flights in and out of the city were either cancelled or delayed and several local and international flights diverted to nearby airports.

Budget airline AirAsia which operates out of Terminal Two but shares the same runway and Malaysia Airlines were among those airlines that cancelled their scheduled flights out of Kota Kinabalu last night.

MAB officials were tight-lipped about the breakdown but some airport officials speaking on condition of anonymity suspect the power supply to the runway lights may have been affected by on-going work on the runway but were unable to either identify or locate the cause.

According to them, the runway lights went out at about 6.20pm forcing many already preparing to land at the airport to divert to airports such as Labuan about half an hour’s flight time away.

MAB officials told the press that they were servicing the runway lights and hoped to get them back on as soon as possible and morning repair work was still ongoing.

An official said the airport can operate during daytime but was unable to say if the flights would be permitted to land or takeoff this evening.

Tempers had flared on Thursday evening when passengers with connecting flights were left without an explanation for the flight delay and many blamed airport management for leaving them in the dark.

“All they kept saying was that there was a technical problem at the runway,” said a travel agent who claimed his clients had phoned him for an explanation after failing to get any information from airport management about their flights.

One passenger claimed that it was chaotic at the airport lounge with no one able to say what was the cause of the delay or for how long. According to officials, there was no work being done at the time the blackout occurred.

The KKIA’s runway is being extended but the project has been riddled with delays. It is the nation’s second busiest airport.

Malaysia Airlines, MASwings and AirAsia passengers on international and domestic routes were being put on alternative scheduled flights today.

[main photo from tzywen.com]