No one seems to care or want to know what is happening to the public transport at the brand-new RM10 billion state-of-the-art Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) in Sepang, some 50km to the south of Kuala Lumpur City.

Getting passengers, especially those from domestic destinations, including from across the South China Seas like Sarawak and Sabah, to have to pay so much by using either limousines or taxis is not exactly the right idea to promote the airport. Elsewhere in many other parts of Southeast Asia it costs so much less, even by cabs, to go into the city. Here we're talking about around RM70 for a one-way taxi trip into the city.

There are luxurious airport-to-city coaches (which cost about a third of the taxi fare) and public buses (which cost much less). But how many are made aware there is this alternative and cheaper way of going down to the city? And how many are aware which level to go to catch the coach or bus down to town?

It is as if there is a deliberate attempt by people who are selling coupons at the arrival hall level not to make this fact known so that passengers will take only limousines to town. Even when the government has now allowed city taxis to pick up passengers from the airport, why is there so few of such taxis at the queue line outside the arrival hall?

Instead I am frequently approached by people at the arrival hall gate by individuals who invite me instead to use other taxis which is cheaper - about RM50, depending on whether you bother to bargain or not - at the departure level. Now this is not right, because the taxis can in fact pick up passengers at the arrival hall. But what is this happening?

Better planning

Clearly the planning of KLIA could have been better. It is not enough merely to finish the project, get all airlines to move from Subang to Sepang, and fly the passengers in and out from there. There is something also to be said about the way air cargo is being handled.

In the first place, the express rail line (ERL) from KL to KLIA should have been completed at about the same time. Now this is going to be completed only in two years' time and according to reports the one-way fare will be around RM30-RM35 which is about half the present taxi fare. And passengers may not mind, however, because it is going to be fast and even more convenient, especially when there is going to be a check-in city terminal. I would however rather check in at the airport terminal itself.

I understand however that the ERL station at KLIA will be below basement level and there is long way to travel to get to the departure level. Given the present size of the present passenger terminal building, it may not make it easier for people to find their way around unless there are really good signages around and in various languages.

At the moment, for those passengers who are however not in a hurry to get to town and want to spend as little as possible on public transport, they can always take the commuter train from the lower level of the building to Nilai (which costs slightly over RM2) and thence by commuter train to KL Sental (which costs another RM5.60 or thereabout). But is information such as this made readily available to passengers from different parts of the country and abroad?

Planning of the airport seems to suggest that every arriving passenger is rich enough to pay between RM70 and RM100 for a taxi ride to the city. There are a lot who prefer to take the inexpensive public transport if they are not joining organised tours for which transport either by coach or mini van already forms part of the package.

Visitors from Kuching and Kota Kinabalu when they arrive at KLIA sometimes buy the Reliance coupon for RM10 for a mini van trip down to the city.

Lack of coordination

But what's happening at KLIA together is that the public transport system seems to lack co-ordination, that passengers are often at a loss of the various types of public transport available (except by limousines and the luxurious coaches), and that the whole system appears to be in a shamble and could get worse, unless the authorities pay more and immediate attention to it.

If Changi International Airport in Singapore can organise their public transport so well and does not suggest that passengers are being fleeced even when ride taxi to town and feel equally comfortable when they take the bus down from the lower level, why can't KLIA do the same?

It has been said perhaps KLIA is too big and too modern for KLIA to handle. But one would think it is perhaps even more true to suggest that unless you are prepared to put the right people at the right place you cannot expect all the systems to function smoothly as expected by the public and all its users.

KLIA is Malaysia's pride but if some of the problem who run it are so incapable of even organising an orderly public transport system then it could well become a laughing stock. Politics cannot have a place in the business of running an airport well.

There are hopes however if public complaints get a reasonable hearing and are acted upon - like the recent complaint about the long wait for checked-in baggage to come out of the carousel. It is noted that this has improved tremendously. Within, as Harun Rashid said, the system seems to work well and is getting even better by the day. The toilets too look like 4-star.

Compare ourselves not with some of the chaotic airports in other parts of Southeast Asia. As one regular traveller commented recently, "It is supposedly a world-class airport, and it better be in its service all the way too."

TONY THIEN is a freelance journalist based in Kuching, Sarawak.