LETTER | How effective is the handling of travellers’ arrival at KLIA?

LETTER | A friend of mine shared his experience arriving at KLIA1 flying from Germany on Aug 14 and the detrimental situation while waiting for a quarantine-designated hotel.

He arrived at around 1 pm. After passing the Covid-19 testing area, there was a small waiting area before the immigration checkpoint. According to my friend, it was impossible for them to hold the minimum distance of 1-1.5 metres despite having to wait for three hours. After passing immigration, they were informed that arrangements for a quarantine-designated hotel were still pending as they couldn’t find one at the moment. While waiting for the hotel arrangement news, everyone was placed in another waiting area.

This is the picture (above) taken by my friend while having to wait with others in such close distance with each other for about six hours.

My friend said that the distance was not safe (less than one metre between each other) and felt worried.

Airports are one of the highest risk public areas being the entry point for people coming from other countries. Having travellers confined to such a small area is like promoting a possible of the deadly virus.

In those six hours, they could not get any decent food. A kind gesture was noted by my friend when he received a packet of juice, bottled water and some crackers. It was not enough and he observed that there was a baby in the crowd. Meanwhile, they had no chance of hearing any updates on where they could spend the rest of the night. At around 11 pm, they were instructed to retrieve their luggage and were finally transported to the hotel.

We appreciate that Malaysia Airports has reassured us that it is taking this outbreak seriously. However, in view of the situation, we are afraid that if another batch of arrivals faces the same issue, it would further increase the risk of exposure to Covid-19.

My friend has a few highlights on how we can do better. Since all travellers need to submit their travel plans prior to their flights, the data should be used by the airport authorities to plan and schedule the capacity for the travellers’ accommodation. Hotels can be pre-booked depending on the number of travellers.

In my opinion, better planning and management of arrivals are a must. Safe distancing must be enforced strictly. For example, at least two or more chairs in between each other at waiting areas. Besides, there should be more hotels arranged as a standby in case of an emergency so that the crowd can be quickly sent on their way. We should aim for a seamless process of handling the travellers to quarantine-designated hotels to minimise risk.

Malaysia is known to be doing well in controlling Covid-19 and Malaysians are pretty proud of their cooperative effort with huge appreciation to the medical frontliners. Let’s not do this in vain. In this pandemic crisis, we must all be well-prepared to face all contingencies.  

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