AirAsia: No more delays, please

AirAsia hopes the Apr, 2014 deadline for completion of KLIA2 would be met without further delays

KUALA LUMPUR: Budget airline, AirAsia Bhd, wants no more delays in the opening of the new low-cost carrier terminal (LCCT), known as KLIA2.

Chief Executive Officer Aireen Omar said the news of the 11-month delay in the opening of the new airport, from the target date of June 28, was not a surprise for the frills-free carrier, as it had predicted the delay.

“This is what we’ve always predicted that the airport would only be ready in the second half of next year.

“But we hope the April 30, 2014 airport completion deadline is the final one. We cannot afford to defer our expansion plans any further,” she told Bernama in a telephone interview from Paris.

Aireen was responding to Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd’s announcement yesterday that the new completion date for klia2 is April 30, 2014, and will begin operations on May 2.

Aireen said now that the airport’s opening has been delayed, the contractors must ensure safety and quality of the new terminal.

She said as AirAsia was concerned on the safety of its passengers and the airport’s users at large, it hoped that MAHB and the contractors would ready the terminal technically, systematically and operationally.

“These readiness are the ones that usually require substantial amount of time for a smooth and safe operations from a new airport,” she said.

Aireen also said AirAsia, as the largest airline to utilise KLIA2, has yet to receive any official notification from MAHB with regard to the new dates for completion and operations.

“Certainly, lack of transparency right from the beginning has affected all parties in terms of planning.

“What we’re disappointed is that MAHB should have been more transparent and honest about it (the delay) from the beginning,” she said.

The completion date for KLIA2 has been revised several times due to changes made to the original plan including building a bigger terminal to handle more than 40 million passengers and installing an automated baggage handling system.

The new airport, envisaged to handle up to 45 million passengers a year, will have 60 gates, eight remote stands and 80 aerobridges, plus a 32,000 square metre retail space with 225 retail outlets.

The project was first tendered out in 2009. Its initial cost of RM1.9 billion has since ballooned to some RM4 billion with the bigger capacity plans and recent analyst reports indicate the cost might escalate further to RM4.5 billion.

Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak announced in January that KLIA2 will be launched on June 28 to coincide with the launch date of the KL International Airport (KLIA) in 1998.

Last month, MAHB announced KLIA2′s fifth delay, without giving any new date.

- Bernama