Where have all the Immis gone?

AirAsia’s 6.00am direct flight from Penang to Hong Kong is a popular choice for travellers in the region.

The Immigration Dept at the Penang International Airport has handled many such travellers since the service was launched end July.

However, early this morning, AirAsia passengers bound for this 6.00am flight were in for a rude shock.

No Immigration officers were at the counter as late as 05:45hr, or 15 minutes away from scheduled departure time!

The aircraft, with 99 passengers and 6 crew members onboard, did not take off until 06:31hr this morning.

Here are SMSes I received from two passengers whom I know personally who were affected by the Immi-triggered delay:

05:48hr, September 28, 2009
Selena Ooi

flight scheduled at 6am, it’s 5.45am now but there’s no one at the immigration counter.

06:22hr, September 28, 2009
Judith Ewe, former-chairperson of Malaysians’ Association in Hong Kong:

Hi I’m flying off w airasia to hk at 6am this morning. Surprised to see immigrations not open at 5am so all paxs were stranded untl now! No immigrations to start work when there’s flight can only happen to boleh land! What a joke! See u next in hk. Regards. Judi.

For the sake of travellers who bothered to fly in-and-out of Penang, in which my parliamentary constituency is located, I have alerted the Department of Civil Aviation on the incident. The preliminary report I received at 09:29hr is as follows:

Flight AK5052 PEN-HKG. ETD 06:00. Aircraft off-blocked at 06:24 n took-off at 06:31. Pax boarding time at 05:40 but pax reported at 05:50 that no immigration officers were on duty. Total pax 99 plus 6 crew.

These international passengers were agitated because most of them had to get up as early as 4.00am in order to reach the gate early and to catch the flight. Travellers have no KPIs but they follow the regular check-in time set by the airlines.

So, in these days of KPI-speak, where’s the KPIs for our Immigration Dept at the Penang International Airport? Can the Home Minister explain for the “No Show” by his boys and girls at their work station?