Liew wants urgent upgrade of KK airport facilities after chaotic congestion

KOTA KINABALU: Datuk Christina Liew has called on Malaysia Airports Sdn Bhd (MASB) to upgrade facilities at the Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA) with urgency.

The Sabah Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister made the call in the wake of chaotic scenes that ensued at the airport which could not cope with a large number of passengers coming in at close intervals.

She said this happened when five flights from South Korea carrying a total of 1,098 passengers landed at KKIA on Wednesday (Aug 2) night.

Based on information from KKIA management, Liew said the airlines were Jin Air from Incheon at 9.47pm, with 385 passengers; Jeju Air (Incheon, 157 passengers); Air Busan (Busan at 10.40pm, 193 passengers); Jeju Air (Incheon at 11.25pm, 179 passengers); and T’way (Incheon at 11.49pm, 184 passengers).

“I have received feedback from tourism players and members of the business community that the toilet facilities are glaringly inadequate, and there is a pressing need to extend the terminal,” Liew said in a statement on Friday (Aug 4).

“I was informed by KKIA management that all 10 available Immigration counters were open that night.

“Clearly, we need more counters, and I think a reconfiguration is warranted to ease congestion and smoothen the clearance process,” she added.

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Urging MASB to expedite the implementation of upgrading the facilities, Liew at the same time expressed regret that her warning that this would occur prior to the reopening of international borders had not been taken up speedily by the relevant authorities.

She called on the KKIA management to start work immediately on extending the existing toilets to cope with the influx of international and domestic tourists.

On July 25, Liew said she was informed by MASB that it had allocated a sum of RM8.4mil for upgrading the facilities at KKIA, during a courtesy call to brief her on the airport’s optimisation plan.

Of the figure, RM1.4mil will be spent on improving the public toilets at the airport by adding more cubicles, while the remaining sum will be utilised for other upgrading projects.

These include resurfacing of the runway and upgrading of the commercial lots as well as the public address (PA) system.