IT seems that the Kuala Lumpur International Airport’s (KLIA) aerotrain service has become an existential threat to our national well-being, at least based on the amount of public discourse on the matter.
The aerotrain has become a sort of a trigger in a therapy session that broke the dam and had all our angst pouring – politics, governance, business, reputational, our self worth, national embarrassment, the government, PMX, Anthony Loke, Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd’s management, contractors, etc.
A host of issues beyond just the failure of the train service connecting the main and satellite terminals, it seems.
Stopped for a couple of years for replacement, the new service is clearly less than desirable. It has gone through several high profile glitches that have questioned the credibility of many, and has also been used as a political hammer to hit everyone and everything.
We have channeled what is ailing our world into the stop-start operation of the train, and extrapolated onto it what we see to be the cause of the problems.
Of course we should not diminish the responsibility of the airport management company MAHB and its contractors, but at the same time perhaps we have lost some sense of proportion in our anger.
For a service that the overwhelming majority of Malaysians have not experienced or will ever use, the aerotrain has dominated our headlines and our sense of dread. The level of scrutiny and indignation on the aerotrain failures perhaps at times are more than, say, that of the national fuel subsidy rationalisation Budi95 programme that actually affects millions.
It should not lessen our annoyance to the parties responsible to suggest that the airport experience of users at KLIA1 is only mildly affected given the effective use of the buses, in lieu of the aerotrain, servicing the terminals. Except for a longer walk, travellers will find that they can reach the terminals fairly easily and that inconveniences can be filed as part of air travel.
I find the argument that it is an embarrassment to foreigners given that they would have to take the bus to the terminals to be slightly disingenuous. I would assume that if I were arriving at an airport after a long flight, my priority would be how to get through customs and immigration as well as get my luggage as quickly as possible, and I would likely not be too concerned on how I got around to doing so.
Some of us have been on flights in other countries where the planes stopped on tarmacs way off sky bridges and terminals and have to be transported by buses, or have to walk through mazes over distances.
I think the embarrassment is more a result of our own navel gazing and imagining how bad the foreigners would think of us – Oh! Our trains are wonky again at the nation’s entry point, what would they say?.
Maybe we have been too hyper sensitive of the aerotrain, magnifying each click and clack of the wheels to be an affront to our sense of national pride.
Of course the problems of the aerotrain are serious because of the implications on proprietary and competency – why is the service having the hiccups? Are they due to something that is not on the up and up?
Many are also taking the opportunity to make the aerotrain a political football to be used to attack the government and its appendages, forgetting of course that it is a problem that has long been in the making, transcended many leaderships, and PMX is inheriting it.
This should not be an excuse, but the fact remains as such. In the great political battle for our hearts and minds, there is little room for nuances and facts. The bigger issues of competency and accountability are perhaps the source of our collective sighs and indignation.
Argh, the aerotrain is failing yet again. What does it say for the rest of us!
Ultimately, there are a few key takeaways from this issue, one of which, while MAHB and its contractors must be held accountable, the quest for retributions must not distract us from resolving the issue and getting the service to work fine again.
Most importantly, despite all the public hand wringing and hair pulling, we also cannot dismiss the fact that the MAHB is doing a fairly decent job in handling tens of thousands passengers daily with or without the aerotrain. – November 6, 2025
***Datuk Zainul Arifin is the Chief Executive Officer of Big Boom Media that publishes Scoop.my