Malaysia has set up a high-level committee to study ways of encouraging more operations to embattled Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) after another high-profile service cancellation.
Japan's All Nippon Airways was the latest carrier to announce a suspension of passenger services to KLIA since the airport's mid-1998 opening. The others were Qantas Airways, Lufthansa and British Airways. The government has been taken aback by the cancellations and its committee is to meet monthly "to look into problems and complaints".
Another committee will prepare a working paper on problems faced at main entry points in the country, while transport minister Ling Liong Sik is studying "problems faced by foreign airlines" flying into Kuala Lumpur.
KLIA opened in mid-1998 with aspirations to be a key South-East Asian hub but it has struggled as rival airports at Bangkok and Singapore have prospered. The government, which is offering discounts on user charges to encourage more airlines to serve KLIA, says baggage clearance delays have been a recurring problem. It is proposing a scheme to encourage handlers to work faster, it says, and new marketing activities are planned.
Airlines have identified baggage and cargo handling delays as major problems at the airport, as well as a lack of adequate transport links to central Kuala Lumpur, around 70km (45 miles) away.
Malaysia Airports Holdings chairman Basir Ismail says that despite the service cancellations, KLIA and Kuala Lumpur's domestic Subang airport are expected to handle more than 19 million passengers this year, compared with 16.8 million in 2000.
He says the withdrawal of a handful of airlines is worrying but has been "compensated" by an increase in flights by airlines such as Cathay Pacific Airways and Emirates.
Source: Airline Business
