MALAYSIA Airports Holdings Bhd has mobilised about 1,000 staff to assist airlines and air passengers as it went into overdrive to get disrupted systems at the KL International Airport (KLIA) and klia2 up and running again.

It has advised passengers to arrive at the airport at least four hours before their scheduled flight departure time.

The systems disruption, which began on Wednesday night, has affected key functions, such as the Wi-Fi connection, flight information display system, check-in counters and baggage-handling system.

Malaysia Airports also said that all 38 remote bays at KLIA’s main terminal have been utilised to cater to aircraft that are unable to proceed to the scheduled gates as they are still occupied.

Additional buses as well as ground-handling services have been provided for airlines as well to ferry passengers to remote bays from the terminal and vice versa.

“We also extended the operating hours at all our other airports nationwide last night to cater to the delayed departing flights from Kuala Lumpur,” it said. As at 10pm yesterday, 68 delayed flights were reported.

Malaysia Airports said it has also provided free parking for all passengers at KLIA’s main terminal (Blocks A, B, C and D) till 6am as many arriving flights had been delayed.

Meanwhile, Malaysia Airlines said on its Facebook page that the systems disruption continued to affect all check-in and boarding processes, as well as baggage sorting. 

“As a result, Malaysia Airlines is forced to process all flight transactions manually. Passengers are, therefore, urged to check-in via mobile or Web to minimise queuing time and to arrive at the airport four hours prior to their departure time,” it said.

The national carrier said it has deployed more than 100 volunteers under its MH Rangers programme to give airport staff handling check-in as well as boarding a hand and to assist passengers throughout the airport.

KLIA’s departure hall was congested today with passengers waiting for announcements on their flights.

One such passenger was Fatin Afiqah Zaimi, whose flight to Manila at 8am was rescheduled to 10am, after which there was no word on the flight.

“I thought the problem would have been resolved by early today. I was here at 5am and I am frustrated for having to wait so long,” said the private sector employee from Balakong, Selangor.

Aiman Amran, 29, a company manager from Banting, Selangor, said his holiday with 20 family members to Bandung, Indonesia, had yet to take flight.

“Our flight was scheduled for 12.05pm but was postponed to 4.15pm. We will miss several programmes on the itinerary,” he said. – Bernama, August 23, 2019.