KUALA LUMPUR: Tan Sri Tony Fernandes has once again taken to Twitter to blast Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) over a bee infestation at Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (klia2).
The chief executive officer of AirAsia Group Bhd today posted a picture of what appears to be a sizeable beehive on the outer window of a passenger boarding bridge.
“Now we have bees in klia2,” he tweeted.
“We got maggots, rats and now bees. Maybe a zoo or klia2 honey.
“Could be new income which could reduce airport tax.
“Jokes aside this is dangerous for my passengers and my staff.
“Will the non-communicative new CEO solve this?”
MAHB, which operates klia2, said it was aware that “a swarm of bees had congregated at Bay Q4 of KLIA2 between 1am to 11am today morning”, but stressed that it was not a beehive.
“It is quite common for migrating swarms of bees to congregate at airports especially at the airside and they would normally disperse when there is rain or heavy wind,” MAHB said in a statement.
“We monitor such situations and if they do not disperse by nightfall, we will get pest control to fumigate so as to avoid the formation of a beehive.
“Such activities are normally done at night for safety reasons as it would be hazardous to disturb the swarm during the day.
“If the swarm remains, we will continue to take similar actions and we are ready to fumigate at 8pm tonight.
“We have not had any situation where the migrating swarm had caused harm to anyone in the past.”
MAHB group chief executive officer Raja Azmi Raja Nazuddin, who replied to Fernandes on Twitter, said his team was “on top of things”.
He also retweeted the statement by MAHB, adding that he hoped it had clarified matters.
This is not the first time the airport has suffered an infestation of sorts.
An AirAsia employee had earlier posted a picture of a rubbish bin filled with maggots and complained about the facility’s hygiene standards. There were also complaints about a rat infestation at the airport after a video of a rat in the passenger lounge went viral.
Air Asia and MAHB are facing off in a legal battle over the imposition of a passenger service charge of RM73.
AirAsia has been collecting RM50 per passenger, which was the rate prior to the standardisation of the PSC at KLIA and klia2.
AirAsia insisted that it was unfair to charge the same fee because KLIA was much better equipped than klia2.
On Dec 11 MAHB announced that it was suing AirAsia and its long-haul affiliate AirAsia X Bhd for a combined RM36.11 million in outstanding airport taxes.