Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd to improve Kota Kinabalu International Airport air circulation
Published on: Thursday, November 02, 2023
By: Sidney Skinner
The long line of overseas visitors waiting for immigration clearance on Tuesday is seen above.
MALAYSIA Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) is taking steps to improve the air circulation at the Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA) in a bid to make the temperature in the departure and arrival areas more comfortable, particularly during the day when the weather gets hot.
The Immigration Department, on the other hand, is making a concerted effort to have passengers touching down at the KKIA processed at an acceptable pace to minimise the inconvenience caused to those lining up at its counters.
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This follows feedback about the lack of ventilation in the departure area at the KKIA, as well as the long queue in which passengers arriving from Taipei were caught in while trying to clear immigration earlier this week.
The glass panels on the wall in this part of the departure hall at KKIA are due to be tinted.
The airport users, who brought this to Hotline’s attention, specified the time and dates of these separate incidents.
A MAHB spokeswoman said the management planned to tint the glass panels which ran down a wall on one side of the departure and arrival halls at the KKIA.
“This will significantly help to block out the direct sunlight and reduce the heat,” she said.
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“Additional air-coolers will also be placed where travellers queue or have to wait to bring down the temperature in these areas.”
She explained that the airport was ventilated by a central air handling unit (AHU), with “preventive maintenance” carried out on a fixed schedule once every three months.
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“This includes cleaning the cooling towers thoroughly to prevent blockages and corrosion which impairs the operating efficiency.”
CAMUS of Penampang expressed his displeasure about the stuffy condition of the departure area at the KKIA on a recent Friday afternoon.
“I had to keep wiping my forehead because I was perspiring,” he said.
“The section on the way to Gate A5, after the immigration counters, were very warm.”
He claimed to have been “boiling” and got the impression that there was “no air conditioning in the Airport”.
“There were zero announcements or apologies to passengers about the ventilation problems which I found very disappointing.”
Camus overheard some of the other passengers grumbling about how ‘hot’ it was at the time.
“One of them remarked that it had been similarly stifling when he was there a month ago.
The fans on the ceiling help to circulate the cool air generated by the ‘airport’s AHU.
“Someone else wanted to know what the management was doing with the airport tax imposed on passengers.
“This individual reasoned that some of this money should go towards improving the building’s air-conditioning.”
The spokeswoman said a check of the company’s records revealed that the AHU tripped between 12.50-1pm on the day in question.
“We suspect that this may have been caused by a power surge,” she said.
“The airport’s operations team immediately set about resetting the system, with the AHU back and running immediately after this was done.
“Passengers were likely to have been feeling warm because it took a while for the temperature to stabilise.”
As regards the public announcements, she said passengers were informed about unserviceable facilities when necessary.
“This is accomplished through various channels such as announcements and digital signages. Travel advisory communications are also made on social media.”
Meanwhile, Immigration Department staff did what they could to manage the 400- plus passengers from two consecutive flights, including the one from Taipei, which landed at the KKIA after 1pm on Tuesday.
The spokesman said a total of 277 passengers disembarked from the Scoot flight from Singapore which landed at 1.13pm.
“Another 132 travellers got off the AirAsia flight from Taipei which touched down nine minutes later,” he said.
The overseas visitors were ushered to five immigration counters while the Malaysians made their way to the single domestic one, according to him.
“Under normal circumstances, seven counters would have been opened to cater for international passengers, but two of our personnel were called away due to unforeseen circumstances.
“One was attending to an urgent Department-related matter elsewhere at the airport, while another was dealing with a bereavement in his family.”
When informed about remarks from some of the tourists that a long queue had formed because only “one counter” was open, the spokesman said this was not the case.
“The waiting area in front of our counters can accommodate about 100 passengers at most.
“So, in this instance, those who were not lined up in this area had to queue outside.”
He said the Department’s personnel had to ensure that each of the overseas visitors met the biometric requirements.
The spokesman said the staff on duty at the time took about 40 minutes to finish processing the passengers from both flights.
“We open as many as 12 Immigration counters after dark as international passenger traffic gets particularly heavy at night.”
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