BY DANIEL KHOO
In a Tweet on Monday night, Fernandes wrote via his official Twitter account: “Coming back to Malaysia for the big battle. I have been silent for too long. Truth needs to come out. Malaysians need to know.”
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PETALING JAYA: AirAsia group chief executive officer Tan Sri Tony Fernandes(pic) is keeping the market guessing as to what he had meant when he said viaTwitter that he would soon be back in Malaysia “for a big battle”.
In a Tweet on Monday night, Fernandes wrote via his official Twitter account: “Coming back to Malaysia for the big battle. I have been silent for too long. Truth needs to come out. Malaysians need to know.”
Several Tweeters sent out replies to his communique, asking him what he had actually meant, but he had not responded as at press time.
There was no response to calls and text messages sent to Fernandes either, but market observers speculated that he could be referring to the oft-delayed KLIA2 terminal project. The new low-cost carrier terminal has missed several deadlines for opening, with the last one scheduled for April 30 before being moved to May 2.
Airport operator Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) had said last week that it had failed to receive the certificate of completion and compliance (CCC) for the KLIA2 terminal building from main joint-venture contractor UEMC-Bina Puri, which had been scheduled for Jan 31, raising concerns that there would be further delays to the airport project.
However, acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein has maintained that the guarantee that KLIA2 would take off on May 2 remained, saying that he would not hesitate to take the necessary action against those who obstructed this schedule.
Fernandes’ Tweets may signal a déjà vu of the public spat between MAHB andAirAsia in late 2011, where both he and MAHB had traded barbs on matters ranging from aerobridges to cost-overruns at KLIA2.
The Star
