DPM Fadillah makes surprise check on tourists’ entry process at KLIA

KUALA LUMPUR, March 14 – Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof today made a surprise visit to the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) in Sepang to get a feel of the experiences encountered by tourists entering the country.

In a Facebook post, Fadillah said the visit would enable him to provide better input at the Meeting on Congestion at International Gateways in Parliament today.

“Starting from KLIA Satellite Building, this morning I became part of ‘passengers’ who just landed, before proceeding to the International Arrival Gate immigration counters. I then queued up together with newly arrived tourists for passport checks, with a waiting time of about 10 minutes.

“Senior officials of Immigration and Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) on duty at KLIA said the queueing period during peak hours can reach 1 hour and 30 minutes or two hours,” he said.

Fadillah, who is also Energy Transition and Water Transformation Minister, said that outside peak hours, the process for tourists to enter Malaysia via KLIA takes about 30 minutes.

Recently, a website ranked KLIA as the eighth worst airport in Asia in a study based on the experiences of business travellers.