Kuala Lumpur International Airport is now only the 7th Best in the World

KLIA Going Down the Shoot?

I wonder why this news could not be seen in the Malaysian media today, if it was there, it must have been well hidden?

Try harder next year KLIA and Malaysia Airports Berhad.

South Korea's Incheon International Airport was voted the best in the world, according to a 10-month survey of airline passengers.

Incheon, located about 70 km (43 miles) from Seoul, South Korea, is one of the busiest airports in the world.

The 'Skytrax' survey asked 8.6 million passengers at 190 airports to rate the facilities based on their experiences at check-in, arrival, departure and transfer.

Incheon edged out Hong Kong's International Airport and Singapore's Changi Airport .

This annual survey also judges airports on individual categories.

Dubai International Airport in the United Arab Emirates came out tops for having the best duty-free shops.

Hong Kong served the best food.

Helsinki-Vantaa in Finland is least likely to lose passengers' bags. and

Japan's Kansai International has the cleanest restrooms.

The top 10 airports, according to the survey, are:

1. Incheon International Airport in Seoul, South Korea

2. Hong Kong International Airport, Hong Kong

3. Changi Airport, Singapore

4. Zurich Airport, Switzerland

5. Munich Airport, Germany

6. Kansai International Airport, Japan

7. Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Malaysia

8. Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, the Netherlands

9. Central Japan International Airport [Centrair], Nagoya Japan

10. Auckland Airport, New Zealand

For the CNN Report, click HERE

For the Straits Times (Singapore) Report, click HERE

Bibere venenum in auro

Drink poison from a cup of gold

KLIA gunfight at doors number 7 & 8, the blame game

The danger of waffling.
Say no to bullshit and convoluted circumlocution.

CLOSING THE STABLE DOOR AFTER THE HORSE HAS BOLTED:

REACTIVE NOT PROACTIVE:

With immediate effect, armed policemen will be stationed at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport's (KLIA) departure and arrival halls.

This was the immediate response from the police after the shoot-out outside the KLIA departure hall yesterday in a RM3.5 million robbery.

DIVERTING ATTENTION:

IGP Musa Hassan said six armed General Operations Force (GOF) personnel will be placed on patrol duty around the clock daily. "The move is to provide extra security at KLIA," Musa said.

He, however, pointed out that it was also important to investigate the moneychangers.

"We want to know how they were going to take RM3.5 million out of the country."

(The gunmen took a bag containing Singapore currency amounting to S$1.5 million.)

THE ARMED ROBBERY

In the armed robbery occurred about 7.50pm, four gunmen ambushed two money changers and their armed guard, firing randomly at them. The armed guard and an off-duty policemen returned fire.

But after the five-minute shoot-out, the two moneychangers -- Muhamad Fadzil Amanullah Khan, 20, and Bukhari Abdullah, 22, -- their armed guard, Suhaime Mohd Yussop, 49, the policeman, Lance Corporal Zainudin Mat Isa, 40, and a Nepalese contract worker, Lal Bahadur Shres, 29, were left injured.

The gunmen escaped with a bag containing the cash. It is understood that the money changers were on their way to Singapore with the cash when they were ambushed. Muhamad Fadzil, Bukhari and Suhaime, had stepped out of the car and were walking towards Gate 8 of the departure hall when the gunmen struck from the front and the rear.

It was also learnt that Suhaime returned fire, and so, too, did Zainudin who was at the airport to meet a friend. Lal Bahadur was caught in the crossfire. All victims suffered gunshot wounds to their legs and when they fell, the gunmen coolly picked the bag containing the money before escaping.

The shoot-out lasting five minutes, sent scores of people running for cover as more than 50 shots were fired.

Several of the shots shattered the glass panels of doors 7 and 8 of the departure hall.

BLAMING OTHERS:

After report that the CCTV cameras at the airport were not working, the Transport Ministry denied responsibility saying that CCTVs installed all over the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) are monitored and taken care of by Malaysia Airports Berhad (MAB).

Saying that he would pay special attention to the issue, Minister Ong Tee Keat also pointed out that not all the CCTVs at the airport were equipped with recording facilities.

"The cameras in the security risk areas inside the airport are for surveillance and also record what it sees continuously.

FLAWED LOGIC

"However, the cameras meant for 'non-security risk areas', such as public areas outside the airport where the shootout took place, are only for surveillance and do not record anything."

Ong was responding to allegations that the CCTVs in the area where a S$1.5 million (RM3.5 million) armed robbery, which resulted in a shoot-out, took place last Wednesday, at KLIA, were not operational.

When asked if it would be more difficult to identify the perpetrators because the cameras were not able to record anything, Ong said it would be too premature to say such things.

COMPLAISANCE

"For now, we leave the investigations to the police. Malaysia Airports Berhad (MAB) will also work very closely with the police."

TOO LITTLE TOO LATE:

Ong also urged all parties involved to work together to improve the security situation, saying that this would be more productive than pointing fingers at each other.

Ong added that he would be meeting Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan soon, after being asked for his comments on Musa having sent the Internal Security and Home Ministry a letter a month ago to improve security at the airport which received no response.

PREVIOUS STUPIDITY OWNED UP TO:

"My ministry is in the midst of meeting every agency where there are areas of overlapping responsibilities so that we can learn from each other and improve," he said on Friday 11 April 2008.

There will be a lot to do then, let’s wait and see how effective the meetings will be, don’t old your breath, empires which have been built will be hard to dismantle!

AVOIDING BLAME:

Early news reports quoted MAB bosses as saying that MAB was not responsible for security outside the airport building; the MAB Auxiliary Police only provided security inside the KLIA buildings and airside at the apron and other areas. MAB said the police were responsible for the roadside and other areas outside the terminal building.If this is true, then it is the recipe for disaster.

Little wonder there have been several recent breeches of security at KLIA, including cutting of the perimeter fence when a man stowed away in the wheel arch of an aircraft, the summgling of a knife on board a Bangladesh Biman aircraft by a passenger, a sometime ago when a car was driven through a window of the departure hall.

The pilfering of passengers' luggage is also a perennial problem at KLIA.

The lackadaisical security is evident for all to see, taxi touts operate, harassing arriving passengers with impunity inside the arrival hall (public area), where they even engage in idle chatter with the airport police!

BULLSHITING

No breach of security at KLIA, says minister!!!

WHAT PURE UNADULTERATED BULLSHIT!

see local news report, in the Star HERE

Graviora manent

- Greater dangers await

KLIA the Third World's Best Airport, is Riddled with Taxi-touts!

WORLD'S BEST?
Wildly Overrated, Rather Lackadaisical, Dishevelled, Stained
Brazened, Emboldened Stinking Taxi-touts

Transport Minister says he Will Tackle Taxi Tout Problem at KLIA

Transport Minister Ong Tee Keat has said steps must be taken to identify the root causes behind the problem of touts at KL International Airport (KLIA), saying, it was not merely enough to catch the touts and charge them in court.

“We need to find better ways of dealing with them, by cooperating with the Commercial Vehicle Licensing Board.

Ong was talking to reporters whilst on a ‘working’ visit to the overcrowded Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT) and Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), underutilised main terminal.

Ong taking a look at apron facilities airside at the LCCT of KLIA on Thursday 4^th April 2008, accompanied by Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd managing director Bashir Ahmad (right) and chairman Aris Othman.

“We will have to enforce the law but catching them does not mean it will resolve the problem. We have to identify the weaknesses in our public transport system, which has enabled touts to exist.”

“The high demand for shuttle services to the city and the lack of airport limousines to cater for this demand is one of the contributing factors,” he told reporters after his first visit to the very quiet KLIA main terminal, and the backyard bursting-at-the-seams Low-Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT).

Ong stated he had gone through (I wonder he he bothered to read them?) some of the e-mail he had received from the public in relation to the problem of touts.

“We must be mindful of all these complaints,” he said.

He said MOT officials had attended a meeting organised by Entrepreneur and Cooperative Development Minister Noh Omar earlier this week.

“This is the first of a series of meetings we will have to counter the touts’ problem. We want to be proactive but we also want to make it clear to the public that certain things are beyond our jurisdiction,” he said, adding that the ministry of transport was not trying to be evasive or trying to fudge the issue.

His words really sound like perfect examples of circumlocution, fudging, cock-talk, and verbal diarrhoea to me, just note some of the words used

‘need to find better ways of dealing with them’

‘mindful’, ‘meetings’, ‘proactive’, ‘beyond our jurisdiction’, blaah, blaah, blaah……

Was he speaking pure unadulterated bullshit?

The way Ong Tee Keat was talking one cannot help but assume that some people in high places must be supportive the touts who are preying on the passengers using KLIA, and that the airport police have been instructed to ignore them!

In recent days I have been to KLIA, both the LCCT and the main terminal, and the taxi-touts are alive a well, sneaking about harassing arriving passengers, tying to con them into using their vehicles for transfer to Kuala Lumpur or elsewhere, the rate they charge cannot be described as anything else but an extortionate rip-off. I overheard a rate of RM 300.00 being quoted for a one-way transfer to a KL city centre hotel.

Don’t hold your breath folks, it took 10 years for Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd. to wake up, realize there was a problem, and effect the changes which have very recently been made to shift the Airport Taxi (Officially called Airport Limousines, many of the vehicles used could best be described as 'old bangers') Service Coupon Sale Booths to a position which arriving passengers can clearly see, formally it was behind arriving passengers when they walked out of the arrival hall exit doors into the public area, no wonder folks never saw them!

One small step has been made, but that was 10 years in the making!

The airport taxi-touts bring great shame and dishonour to KLIA and to Malaysia, whoever has the authority, should singly or jointly take immediate effective action to totally rid KLIA and all other Malaysian airports of the scourge of the touts.

The Kuala Lumpur International Airport has 'won' many so called awards, but when one sees the taxi-touts, in addition to poorly maintained facilities, the dirty toilets with broken fittings and the aroma of stale urine, parks in a car park parking lot which is slimy with oil, and when the flight information system both at the airport and on-line is not efficient, it makes me wonder on what basis were the various awards awarded.

URGENT, EFFICIENT and SUSTAINED ACTION IS NEEDED NOT EMPTY WORDS AND HOLLOW PROMISES.

Awards & Recogition, as boasted about on the KLIA web-site

".... 2007
1. KLIA was awarded "The Brand Laureate", the Grammy Awards for branding for Best Brands Transportation Airport 2006-2007. 2. KLIA has been chosen as 'The Most Outstanding Establishment in the...


.... 2006
1. KL International Airport (KLIA) was voted Best Airport in the 15-25 million passengers per annum category in the recently announced AETRA 2005 results. 2. KLIA also bagged third place for both...


.... 2005
1. The Free Commercial Zone (FCZ) at KLIA received the MS ISO 9001:2000 Quality Management Systems for the scope of management of FCZ covering issuance of licences and monitoring of the movement of...


.... 2004
1. KLIA received the "Gold Award" for the Advertising Award by Air Transport World (ATW) magazine. The award was based on the Integrated for Ease advertising campaign, which was created for the...


.... 1998
1.1st in the 15 to 25 mppa category for business passengers. (based on IATA Global Airport Monitor...


.... 1999
1. 6th position for overall satisfaction for all categories. (based on IATA Global Airport Monitor 2000) 2. 5th in the 15 to 25 mppa category for leisure passengers. (based on IATA Global Airport...


.... 2000
1. Best airport in the Asia Pacific for category 15 to 25 mppa by Airport Service Excellence 2000. 2. 2nd most improved airport for 15 to 25 mppa by Airport Service Excellence 2000. 3. 2nd in...


.... 2001
1. 2nd best airport in worldwide survey by Skytrax Research, a British based air travel industry research company. 2. KLIA was one of the recipients of the National Special Landcape Awards 2001...


.... 2002
1. 3rd best airport in Asia, after Singapore and Hong Kong, based on the 16th Asian Freight Industry Awards 2002 (AFIA), organised by Cargonews Asia publication. 2. The Pan Pacific Hotel KL...


.... 2003
1. KLIA was voted best emerging airport in Asia in the category for handling less than 500,000 tonnes of cargo annually at the Asian Freight & Chain Supply Awards 2003 (AFSCAs). 2. KLIA was among..."

KLIA BLOWING THEIR OWN BADLY TUNED TRUMPET!

KLIA's horrendous web-site! I shall leave that for another post.

Cura nihil aliud nisi ut valeas

- Pay attention to nothing except that you do well.