SEPANG, Dec 4 – The operations of low-cost carrier AirAsia at the KLIA2 terminal here which were affected since Monday are now almost back to normal. Checks by Bernama found for flight schedules up to 1pm yesterday, flights to Kuching and Kota Bharu were delayed while to Chennai, India, Surabaya, Indonesia and Kota Kinabalu, Sabah were cancelled.
In the meantime, the departures and arrivals involving other destinations were on schedule. According to an AirAsia spokesman, its operations at KLIA2 were much better on Wednesday as compared to Tuesday but there were still some delays, rescheduling and cancellations.
The spokesman said there were some disruptions as 13 of our pilots came down with the flu but they are still okay because they have hundreds of pilots. Meanwhile, the spokesman also denied that there was a strike by pilots. AirAsia Group Chief Execuitive Officer Tan Sri Tony Fernandes in his Twitter feed yesterday had said: “Unfortunately had 13 pilots sick which caused flight issues.”
A passenger, Tengku Noradilah Tengku Jalal, 25, said her flight to Kota Baharu was scheduled for 9.30pm yesterday but was rescheduled to 6.30 am yesterday. She also said the passengers were not alerted earlier and only came to know about it at 10.30 when a staff told them about it.
She said it was chaotic at the counters. She also added that some passengers from China lost their temper because of the delays. She said the airline offered the affected passengers accomodation at a nearby hotel but opted to spend the night at the terminal for fear she might miss the flight in the morning.
AirAsia in a statement later apologised for the inconvenience caused and said it was taking all steps necessary to ensure services were not disrupted. Meanwhile, Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd managing director Datuk Badlisham Ghazali said they were aware of the situation and would extend whatever help they could to affected passengers. He said the problems were operational matters involving AirAsia. Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd is the operator of KLIA2.
