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PETALING JAYA: Authorities have had to deal with various issues beyond their control involving passengers on Malaysian flights who were trapped at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) after arriving from abroad, says the National Management Agency for Disasters (Nadma).
Its chief operating officer, Datuk Hussein Omar Khan, said there was an influx of arrivals at the airport on Sunday, the eve of yesterday’s deadline, where citizens of 23 countries who are long pass holders were barred from entering Malaysia. term after an increase in Covid- 19 cases in these countries.
He said that some of the hotels that used to be on the quarantine station list had reopened their normal operations, leaving the agency with fewer quarantine rooms for newcomers abroad.
“About 200 Malaysians were affected but we have resolved the matter,” he said yesterday.
He said that some of the Malaysians were successfully transferred to quarantine stations in government institutions and hotels that are still on the list of quarantine stations.
“Usually we will receive around 500 arrivals per day, but on Sunday, in view of the deadline, there were more than 1,000 arrivals at the airport.
“On top of that, since they arrived late at night and early in the morning, hotels had to wait for their guests to check out before management could confirm if rooms were available,” he said.
Hussein, who was at KLIA to handle the situation, also explained that Nadma had initially offered all arrivals to check-in at quarantine stations at government institutions to rest until hotel rooms were available, but many preferred to wait.
A source said hotels in the Klang Valley were fully booked due to a major unscheduled water outage on Thursday that lasted until Sunday.
Malaysia Airlines director of customer relations Emily Sheela Koshy said that although the airline had no jurisdiction over the matter, its staff were available to assist passengers.
“Our staff was present in the waiting room to help the passengers.
“We fully understand the disappointment and frustration experienced by those affected by the long wait at the airport.
“But we believe that the authorities handled the situation to the best of their ability under the circumstances,” Koshy said, stating that all health precautions were taken to minimize exposure and cross-infection.
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