NO compensation claims have been filed over the four-day systems breakdown at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) and klia2, which allegedly cost millions of ringgit in losses for airlines, said Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB).

The disruption caused numerous flight delays, which caused airlines to incur the cost of accommodating hundreds of passengers, many of whom had also cancelled their flights.

It had been reported that airlines said they would claim compensation over the disruption. One unnamed airline chief reportedly said it suffered some RM6 million in losses, while another airline said it was looking at losses amounting to more than RM10 million. 

A MAHB spokesman, however, told The Malaysian Insight that days after the system at both airports were fully restored, they had yet to receive any compensation claims.

“No (compensation claim), and if any are made, we will look at all claims without prejudice and will act accordingly thereafter,” a spokesman for the country’s largest airport operator told The Malaysian Insight, adding it would also look into claims from passengers if any arose.

The spokesman said system in both KLIA and klia2 were up and running smoothly. 

The network failure, which started on August 21, resulted in a systems outage at both terminals, resulting in operational chaos, flight delays and frustrated passengers.

AirAsia Group Bhd chief executive officer Tony Fernandes had said last Friday that AirAsia would not take any action against MAHB for the systems failure.

He had said the problems faced by MAHB were quite common, adding he did not want to take advantage of the matter by taking legal action against it.

“We will not take any specific action against MAHB for what had happened last week. We don’t want to take any advantage of the situation.

“Each organisation will have its own problems. We also have our own issues,” Fernandes had said.

Meanwhile, KLIA police said investigations into the systems breakdown was ongoing, with 12 people already questioned.

KLIA police chief Assistant Commissioner Zulkifli Adamsah told The Malaysian Insight that the case was being investigated under under Section 427 of the Penal Code for causing mischief.

“We may call up several others for questioning soon,” Zulkifli added.

Meanwhile, the New Straits Times reported on Monday that four MAHB information technology (IT) officers had lodged police reports denying their involvement in the disruption.

The four, who are pioneer IT officers with MAHB since it began operations 20 years ago, made the police report to counter a report lodged by MAHB. 

It was learnt that the four staff, who were suspended following the incident, were part of 12 MAHB officials called in by police to assist in its probe. – September 4, 2019.