‘20-YEAR-OLD KLIA NEEDS URGENT UPGRADING’
KUALA LUMPUR: The 20-year old Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) needs urgent upgrading as congestion has affected its service quality and efficiency, said former transport minister Tan Sri Ong Tee Keat.
He said while KLIA had steadily achieved its target of being a regional hub with increasing volume of air traffic, it was time to relook at some of the areas of management efficiency, such as the longer time taken for immigration clearance, luggage retrieval and even security checks.
“These are some of the problems highlighted by users. All these may sound petty but these are the factors that link to the overall airport efficiency,” he said.
Ong said it was timely to relook at the handling capacity, the design capacity and KLIA’s service quality survey index compared with other airports in the region.
In the face of stiff competition from neighbouring countries, Ong pointed to the urgency of upgrading KLIA’s facilities and equipment before it is too late.
He suggested that Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) undertake more distinct branding of the terminals for greater efficiency in the allocation of airline slots and schedule slots.
“Everyone expects KLIA to play a prominent role of being a full service hub, accommodating homegrown and foreign full service airlines. But klia2, on the other hand, was built for budget airlines to a large extent and for this, MAHB has to do a more distinct branding.
“If you want to earmark KLIA as a full service terminal then we should do in such a way that it can accommodate not just the existing flight frequencies but the potential rise in flight frequencies in the near future,” he said.
Another factor that should be looked into is the space utilisation by airlines.
“Perhaps, one of the parameters that we should look into is passengers’ comfort levels, calculated in terms of sq m or sq ft per passenger, and this is quite crucial in the airport design.”
Ong praised Malaysia Airlines Bhd for making great efforts to upgrade its service at KLIA, especially its business class counters.
On MAHB’s part, it would be wise for it to allocate a dedicated area for the national carrier’s business class counters, he said.
KLIA was ranked 34th last year compared with 24th in 2016 in the survey by Skytrax, a British-based consultancy, with Changi notching up top spot for both years.
It, however, was ranked seventh in the world for best airport staff service and tops for airport immigration service.