Senior aide draws flak after complaint over missing a flight

 

Shamsul Iskandar Akin came under fire after complaining about being unable to board a Batik Air flight which was delayed for two hours. (Batik Air Malaysia Facebook pic)

PETALING JAYA: A senior aide to Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has drawn flak from netizens after taking to social media to complain about missing a Batik Air flight yesterday, after he had been late for boarding.

Shamsul Iskandar Akin, the senior political secretary to the prime minister, had expressed disappointment with Batik Air after his 6.50pm flight from Penang to Kuala Lumpur was delayed to 8pm.

Shamsul Iskandar Akin.

“After my name was called at 7.45pm, I arrived at the boarding gate five minutes later. However, the gate was already closed,” he said in a posting on X.

He claimed that he was being mistreated as a consumer, and asked transport minister Loke Siew Fook to “take stern action”.

This led to a wave of brickbats from multiple X users who told Shamsul, the former Hang Tuah Jaya MP, that he should have been at the boarding gate earlier.

“According to SOP, the gate is supposed to close 10 minutes before take off for the completion of paper work so that the flight isn’t delayed. So embarrassing,” said @wanariefimran, who also mentioned Anwar’s X account in his posting.

Other users said Shamsul should have been at the boarding gate by 7.15pm after being informed that the flight was delayed, adding that he had no one to blame but himself.

Netizen @MiraSueMZ questioned why Shamsul was late in reaching the airport to the point that he had to be paged over the public address system.

“Do aircraft need to wait for VIPs? What kind of entitlement is this?” she said, while questioning why Shamsul needed to mention Loke in his post.

X user @Nsyawana said Shamsul’s actions were an embarrassment for Anwar since the former was a senior aide to the prime minister.

“Please do some self-reflection. Other travellers arrive hours prior for fear of missing their flights. We follow the rules. Please change your behaviour, don’t be a diva,” the posting read.

In reply to Shamsul’s posting yesterday, Batik Air CEO Chandran Rama Muthy apologised for the flight delay, which he said was caused by bad weather.

He said the plane had to take off at 8pm on the dot to ensure that other passengers did not miss their connecting flights at KLIA. - FMT