We, the staff of AirAsia, refer to the Malaysiakini report Safety of Labu LCCT questioned .
In particular, we wish to refer to the remarks by Wee Choo Keong (PKR-Wangsa Maju) as quoted below:
‘The most important and serious of which is the safety factor with regard to its location. Does he realise the distance between KLIA-East in Labu and KLIA in Sepang will only be a straight line 10km apart?
‘Why court danger? Why go against ICAO’s (International Civil Aviation Organisation) strict recommendation that the minimum distance between two airports should be at least 40km?
‘Can Tony Fernandes foresee that there will be a high percentage for disasters and loss of precious lives waiting to happen?’
We have been researching this issue to try and find the specific ‘strict recommendation’ by the ICAO that Wee quotes and would appreciate it if Wee could show us the said recommendation. We have also sought the help of aviation experts on this matter.
Contrary to Wee’s claim, the experts we have consulted – who range across the aviation spectrum – tell us that there are no international criteria regarding the separation between airports. What we did discover were several cases of airports closer to each other than 40km.
For example, in the US there are the JFK-La Guardia airports in New York; Dallas-Fort Worth-Love Field in Texas, O’Hare and Midway in Chicago and San Francisco and Oakland airports in California.
In Paris, there are the Orly and Charles De Gaulle airports while in London, Heathrow and Gatwick. Closer to home are the Hong Kong and Macau airports. These are examples of very busy commercial airports that are closer to each other than 40km.
International criteria focuses on the aircraft themselves and the pertinent criteria concerns aircraft in the air. Those criteria say that aircraft in flight, such as planes taking off or landing at KLIA’s Main Terminal and the KLIA-East, must be separated by at least 3.0 nautical miles.
If you check out the details on the proposed KLIA-East , critics will find that we actually have an aircraft track-to-aircraft track separation of 3.939 nautical miles. The closest distance between the runways at the KLIA Main Terminal and KLIA- East is 4.533 nautical miles (1 nautical mile = 1.151 statute mile).
These criteria can be found both in ICAO and FAA (US Federal Aviation Authority) regulations. There are other criteria which define safe layouts for aircraft operating areas (runways, taxiways, aprons, etc.) while aircraft are on the ground.
We have used the most stringent ICAO and FAA criteria, that which apply to large airplanes like Airbus 340s, Boeing 747s and Airbus 380s, so that we can be sure that future growth for AirAsia and AirAsiaX at KLIA-East will never create unsafe conditions.
We are deeply offended and hurt by Wee’s comment ‘Can Datuk Seri Tony Fernandes foresee that there will be a high percentage for disasters and loss of precious lives waiting to happen?’
Wee seems to be implying that we at AirAsia are cavalier with the lives of our passengers and staff. We are fully aware that politicians, in zealous pursuit of a particular agenda, have scant regard for the facts and freely cast malicious aspersions on their targets.
But even within these parameters, we are appalled that a supposedly responsible and honourable elected representative such as Wee would stray so far beyond the pale of accepted norms.
We welcome valid and justified criticism based on facts and are more than prepared to engage with these critics, but we are at a loss on how to respond to comments such as Wee’s which impute that we deliberately endanger lives.
P.S: We have also responded directly to Wee at his blog and extended an invitation to him to please meet with us at our office at the LCCT in Sepang. We will be more than happy to personally address his concerns.
