Did Rayani Air Issue Handwritten Boarding Passes To Its Passengers?
Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said that the airlines could be suspended.
By Tang Ruxyn — 22 Mar 2016, 10:05 AM — Updated over 8 years ago
Rayani Air, Malaysia's first Shariah-compliant airline, is under public scrutiny after the airline had allegedly given out handwritten passes to passengers recently due to a system failure
On March 19, a picture of a handwritten boarding pass went viral after Kampung Tunku assemblyman Lau Weng San posted the image on his social media account.
The post received more than 300 likes.
However, the authenticity of the image has not yet been confirmed.
Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai has said that his ministry is currently investigating the issue as it could be a potential security threat
“Handwritten passes can pose a security threat. They should issue proper (printed) boarding passes."
“But we will investigate the claims thoroughly because handwritten passes could have been issued due to a system breakdown.”
Liow said that handwritten boarding passes could be considered a security threat if the handwriting was not clear.
A boarding pass contains barcode and passenger information, and can be used for safety and boarding checks.
There seems to be more trouble for the newly-launched airlines as Liow added that Rayani Air could be suspended if more complaints are made against it
"If there are more complaints, we will definitely refer them to the aviation commission."
"The commission can even suspend (them) if we feel they don’t follow our orders," Liow said.
He said Rayani has already been served several notices, including for flight cancellations without replacements.
"We don’t simply issue warnings. Cancelling flights and not replacing them is serious."
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Nonetheless, Liow said that Rayani Air had expressed its commitment to adhere to standards set by the Department of Civil Aviation Malaysia (DCA)
"We have given it warning that it has to comply with the DCA regulations. If there are more complaints, we can refer it to the Malaysian Aviation Commission, which is now in place," he said.
On claims that Rayani Air's flights face delays on a daily basis, Liow said the government has set a Key Performance Index (KPI) for all airlines to meet an 80% on-time arrival a year.
"We have a KPI, all airlines have to fulfil a KPI 80% on-time arrival a year, if it couldn't reach on time, we will give another warning if they couldn't fulfil the time we have given to them," he noted.