klia2 to open next month, without AirAsia
The Malaysian Insider – 8 hours agoRELATED CONTENT
- klia2 to open next month, without AirAsia
The new low-cost carrier terminal klia2, the opening of which was delayed several times, will finally be opened in May with only two airlines - Cebu Pacific and Malindo Air - operating there initially, Public Accounts Committee chairman Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed said today.
He added that AirAsia will move in later, after the system is up and running and klia2 is shown to be able to operate with a lower number of passengers in the initial stages.
He also said following a three-hour meeting today with Ministry of Transport and MAHB officials including managing director Tan Sri Bashir Ahmad Abdul Majid, PAC will be calling AirAsia to provide some answers on matters put forward by MAHB.
"A lot of the explanations given by MAHB today touches on Air Asia as the construction of klia2 was influenced quite a bit by them.
"So we decided that we will call Air Asia officials to meet us as soon as possible," Nur Jazlan added.
When asked if he was satisfied with the explanation given by MAHB on the cause of the delays, Nur Jazlan said the information had to be verified.
"We need to hear from the parties that they have mentioned.
"If need be we might also call the consultant and contractor involved in klia2 as the delays were also pinned on them," he said.
Nur Jazlan said he did not see any leakages in the delays related to the construction of the low-cost carrier terminal, adding that klia2 was funded by MAHB and did not receive any government funding.
He added that MAHB had also assured that the cost of the terminal would not breach RM4 billion.
According to Nur Jazlan, while it was MAHB's plan for AirAsia to move into klia2 at a later date, it was not known if this would be agreeable to AirAsia.
"This is MAHB's plan, for Air AirAsiato move in later after the new terminal is operational for a while, but we have to ask AirAsia if this is their plan as well," he said.
He also said that investigations into the delays in the construction of klia2 "did not end here", adding that PAC would be releasing a report for public consumption.
"We want the public to be rid of any wrongful perception of the construction of klia2 because the issue has been reported negatively by local and foreign media and this might affect the launch and the image of the new terminal, especially since this is Visit Malaysia Year," he said.
Other issues discussed at today's meeting between PAC and MAHB included the security measures at the new terminal, following the ongoing missing Malaysia Airlines MH370 crisis, and the revelation that two men had used fake passports to board the jetliner.
The two men were later identified as Iranians but had used Italian and Austrian passports to leave the country on the Beijing-bound plane that vanished on March 8.
The airport terminal has faced almost a year of delays that has led to a war of words between its main client, AirAsia founder Tan Sri Tony Fernandes and acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein.
Hishammuddin had said that interested parties should cease finger-pointing and put national and the people's interests first by meeting the stipulated operational date on May 2.
"They, not the government, picked the date because it is a private commercial venture. So, they must be responsible," Hishamuddin had said. – April 1, 2014.
