AIR ASIA MOVED TO KKIA ON JULY 2011?

VISIT…Hiew and Edward Ewol Mujie visiting the Terminal 2 of KKIA.

By: DAP MEDIA

KOTA KINABALU Member of Parliament Dr. Hiew King Cheu has expressed the public concern to the Assistant Minister of Transport Datuk Abdul Rahim Bakri on the runway condition of the Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA) and its condition that might be dangerous to big aircrafts.

The minister in his reply said that the upgrading work in the KKIA runway is for the purpose of allowing bigger aircrafts like the Boeing 747-400 and Airbus 380 to land safely into the KKIA runway. At the same time this will provide a higher and larger volume of passengers coming in and out of KKIA from the existing 3.9 million a year to 9 million passengers a year.

Dr. Hiew said he is also very concern about the slow work performance of the contractor who is now far behind on the construction schedule on the runway extension project and there seems no sign of a fast completion. The contractor has been warned by the Ministry to speed up with the work but there were no positive action.

The ministry should find ways to complete the whole extension project to allow the KKIA to operate smoothly as planned. On the part of the recent fire in the Flight Control Centre that caused three hours of flight disorder and delay, Dr. Hiew said that this shouldn’t happen in our KKIA.

The fire shouldn’t happen in the important facilities at KKIA like the Flight control centre. Some serious malfunction may occur due to the system fault and that may cause disasters. The airport authority must pay serious attention to regularly check all the equipments and fire fighting installation especially on the electrical installation. We cannot afford to have another mishap like this occurring any more.

The KKMP also ask the Assistant Minister of Transport Datuk Abdul Rahim Bakri on when the Air Asia operation at the KKIA Terminal 2 will be moved to the Terminal 1, he said it is scheduled to start from the 1st of July 2011 officially. The Terminal 2 will then be used for the purpose of air cargo, freight, and for all chartered flights from outside.