QUESTION TIME When first I stepped into KLIA2, the new RM4 billion terminal, which replaced the RM300 million Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT), sometime in 2014, I was astonished by its size and the numerous shops strewn all along the way to immigration, check-in and beyond.

And I, like thousands before me and millions after me, was maddened by the fact that it took me a good 45 minutes to get to the gates. Considering that the average walking speed for a human being is said to be around 5km per hour, and let’s say I was below average at 4km per hour, that’s a walk of around 3km to board the plane. And there were no walkalators then but there are some now - a lame afterthought.

I completely empathise with AirAsia group CEO Tony Fernandes’ description of KLIA2 as a Frankenstein terminal, although I did not relish the previous process at the LCCT of walking as much as 500m or more in a pouring thunderstorm with a little umbrella for shelter or under a blazing sun with the deafening roar of taxiing AirAsia aeroplanes barely metres away.

But to walk 3km in the spanking new KLIA2, even if it was in air-conditioned comfort, comes as scant improvement, especially when you consider that a massive RM4 billion was poured in as construction costs. That’s over 13 times the RM300 million cost of the previous LCCT, which was, whatever else you may say about it, far more efficient than KLIA2.

To put the cost of construction further in context, the main terminal and airport at KLIA, cost RM10 billion to build in 1998 but that included as well a satellite terminal building, two runways and infrastructure, much of which had to be put up from scratch. KLIA2 was completed in 2014, 16 years later, but with one additional runway. The RM4 billion cost still seems rather expensive...