KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia’s former Formula 1 racer Alex Yoong posted his frustrations with Malaysia Airlines on social media after two of his flights were delayed due to technical issues.
In a post on Facebook 18 hours ago, Yoong said he was supposed to fly from Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) to Singapore to catch connecting flights to Sydney, and then New Zealand.
However, his departure was delayed twice and he ended up missing his connecting flights.
“Taking (Malaysia Airlines) out of Kuala Lumpur and there is something wrong with the plane. We got taken off so they can get another plane for us. No issue (as) I’ve left plenty of time to catch my connecting flight,” Yoong said.
However, things got worse as his replacement flight was also cancelled, he continued.
“The second plane had an issue and we were deboarded again. Incompetence is unbelievable because clearly someone is messing up badly – not to mention they can’t seem to operate their planes.
Tagging Malaysia Airlines on Facebook, Yoong said he missed his connecting flights and was “stuck at the gate” with no one from the airline present to attend to passengers.
In a second post, Yoong appeared to have reached Singapore after being told that the airline would reroute his journey.
As a result, Yoong said he did not rebook his onward flight.
However, in Singapore, he was told the airline would not reroute his flight because the booking was “not the same” despite earlier being issued boarding passes for the flight to New Zealand.
“Why they didn’t tell me that so I could have rebooked the ticket myself six hours ago – I don’t know why.
“I’ve lost the ticket. Flying back to that s******e of an airport now and cancelling the trip.
“Lots of other passengers in the same boat. F*****g shocking Malaysia Airlines,” Yoong added.
Since June, a few Malaysia Airlines flights made headlines over delays, diversion or turn backs to departure points due to technical and cabin pressurisation issues.
There were also incidents reported last year as listed out by former transport minister Datuk Wee Ka Siong recently to demand swift action to prevent a loss of confidence in the national carrier.
Yesterday, commenting on these concerns, Transport Minister Anthony Loke said the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia (CAAM) had conducted a special audit on Malaysia Aviation Group (MAG), which operates Malaysia Airlines. The report will be submitted to the cabinet.
Besides the audit, CAAM also made a surprise visit on MAG’s engineering department in June, and will be briefing the cabinet on its findings, Loke added.
Responding to the recent incidents, MAG last Saturday announced it would be cutting its flights and routes between now and December 2024 to take “corrective measures”, following service disruptions that have plagued its aircraft of late.
It said the scale-down would be temporary to allow its airlines to deal with operational difficulties that included “supply chain constraints, manpower challenges, and other external factors as part of the continuing normalisation of global aviation operations post-pandemic”. – August 27, 2024