Liow wants MAHB to give quick report on KLIA aerotrain service breakdown

Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said he has asked Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (MAHB) to give a quick report on the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) aerotrain service breakdown this morning.

Regretting the incident happened, he said the breakdown of the aerotrain service which connects the KLIA main terminal to the satellite building should not happen.

"We apologise to our passengers for the inconvenience.

"They (MAHB) have to look at the aerotrain service. If the aerotrains used are old because they have been in service for more than 20 years, if needed, they can change them. If need to repair, then do maintenance, it is MAHB’s responsibility to provide good services to the passengers," he told a media conference here today.

Netizens vented their anger in social media following the breakdown of two KLIA aerotrains at about 8am today.

Earlier, in its official Facebook posting, MAHB said the aerotrain service was currently undergoing corrective maintenance.

Later, MAHB said one of the aerotrains resumed operations at 10.38 this morning.

Meanwhile, Liow called for more buses to be provided to transfer passengers from the two terminals.

"Initially, they only sent five buses which is not enough. So, we asked them to send in more, as many as they could for the convenience of passengers," he said.

Liow added this was the second such incident after a breakdown in the service last December.

Meanwhile, MAHB managing director Datuk Badlisham Ghazali said 30 buses and vans had been made available in case the service still could not operate as normal.

He said the airport operator also planned to increase the number by five (buses and vans) to smoothen the transfer of passengers tomorrow.

He added that the two aerotrains that broke down were expected to be fully operational by 9.30pm today.

He exlained that the steps take were precautionary measures if the incidents recurred.

"We are taking the added measures in view of the increased load following the start of the school holidays (tomorrow).

"On the part of MAHB, we apologise over the inconvenience caused and will ensure that passengers will be updated on the status of the aerotrain service every three minutes," he said when contacted by Bernama.

The first aerotrain broke down due to a major malfunction while the second owing to overload which required about hour to be reset so that it could continue operations, he said.

"We will also station 30 staff to assist passengers and ask that they heed directions by them to prevent the aerotrains from becoming overloaded," he added.