KUALA LUMPUR — Over 85% of the immigration inspection and clearance process for arriving passengers or travellers at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) is completed in less than 25 minutes.
Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail told the Dewan Rakyat that based on the performance report of the Smart Q system, which uses the Internet of Things technology and Airport Quality of Service (QOS), the arrival process at the airport achieved its target of a short waiting period.
When there are incidents of overcrowding at the KLIA immigration counters, they are due to changes to flight arrival schedules, including simultaneous flight arrivals, he explained.
“In a month, there could be five or six days where flight arrivals will differ from the schedule, causing intervals of two to three minutes between arrivals. This results in immigration clearance taking up to 49 minutes while our target is less than 25 minutes.
“So, in that one month there are five to six incidents, we admit it and do not deny it. However, for the remaining 25 days, 85%of passenger clearances are completed in less than 25 minutes,” he said during the question-and-answer session today.
The home minister was answering a question from R. Yuneswaran (Segamat-PH) about measures to deal with congestion at the Immigration, Customs and Quarantine (ICQ) Sultan Iskandar Building (BSI) and KLIA.
Saifuddin said to facilitate the immigration clearance process at KLIA Terminals 1 and 2, 10 automatic gates and manual counters at both terminals are fully open during peak hours from 11am to 9pm.
“The use of the autogate fence was previously reserved for Malaysians only, but because the arrival of tourists is also large, so we decided to open the use of the autogate to 63 countries.
“All counters (immigration) at KLIA Terminal 1, which are 60 manual counters and 10 autogates, while at KLIA Terminal 2, as many as 38 manual counters and 10 autogates we open at peak times so that there is no difficulty for travelers, whether our citizens or foreigners,” he said.
On measures at BSI and the Sultan Abu Bakar Complex (KSAB) in Johor, Saifuddin said the procurement process for the use of Quick Response Codes (QR) for bus and motorbike transport modes at these checkpoints was made in this financial year with an allocation of RM20 million as an effort to reduce congestion. – November 19, 2024