KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 22 — The airport management system at the country’s main gateway has yet to be fully restored after two nights of disruptions that resulted in flight delays and inconvenience to air travellers.

Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (MAHB) said it is still trying to stabilise its systems at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) as at 6am today.

"In mitigating this, we have utilised all 38 remote bays at KLIA Main Terminal to cater to aircraft that are not able to proceed to the scheduled gates as they are still being occupied,” it said in a statement issued at 7am.

Remote bays refer to open bays where the planes are parked and are not connected to the terminal by an aerobridge, which means passengers have to exit the aircraft by steps onto the tarmac and be transported separately into the terminal and vice versa.

MAHB said it has set aside four more buses and extra ground staff to transport passengers to and from their respective gates in the terminal to their planes.

"Additionally, we had also provided free parking for all passengers who parked at KLIA Main Terminal (Block A, B, C and D) till 6.00 am today (23/8) as many had encountered delays of arrival flights,” it added.

MAHB also said it extended the operating hours at all its other airports nationwide last night due to delays in flights out of the KLIA.

Transport Minister Anthony Loke and the ministry's secretary-general Datuk Mohd Khairul Adib Abdul Rahman dropped in at KLIA early this morning and were briefed by MAHB personnel that there were some problematic equipment, but did not elaborate on the cause of the systems disruption.

In a Facebook post after the visit, Loke thanked KLIA staff for working overtime to resolve the problem.

Transport Minister Anthony Loke (right) and the ministry's secretary-general Datuk Mohd Khairul Adib Abdul Rahman during their visit to the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang August 23, 2019. — Picture via Facebook/Anthony Loke Siew Fook

The massive outage of the airport systems at both terminals of the KLIA was said to have started at night on August 21 and continued throughout yesterday, affecting check-in counters, flight information displays systems (FIDS), baggage handling, its MYairportd mobile application and the credit card systems at even retail and food and beverage stores.

The FIDS recovered yesterday evening, but not fully as there were reports of disruptions on and off.

As at last night, MAHB said it has about 1,000 staff on the ground to assist air travellers and airlines during this extended disruption. 

It advised passengers to be at KLIA at least four hours ahead of their scheduled flight departure times and to watch is social media platforms for updates on the situation as well as to contact any airport staff on the ground for help.

It apologised for the inconvenience.