Can Now Private Entity Mahb Guarantee No More Aerotrain Breakdowns After Having Clocked The 20th Mark

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WHETHER that is fat hope or otherwise, blogger and veteran journalist Datuk A. Kadir Jasin has seemingly used the breakdown-prone KLIA aerotrain system to gauge if airport operator Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) is better off as a listed entity on the Main Market of Bursa Malaysia.

Editor’s Note: The delisting of MAHB from the local bourse on Feb 25 this year marks the end of a 25-year corporate journey for the airport operator which debuted on Nov 30, 1999 at a price of RM2.50.
According to Kadir, research on various online sources indicated that since Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim inaugurated the RM456.1 mil aerotrain service on July 1, it has suffered 20 breakdowns until mid-October with the latest reportedly occurred on Oct 15.

“For this to happen is very embarrassing and raises suspicions against MAHB which has just been taken private with 30% of its shares sold to foreign investors, and as PMX mentioned in his Budget 2026 speech, is spending RM2.3 bil upgrading several of its airports,” observed the national journalism laureate.
“Is MAHB better off now as a private limited company with four shareholders (Khazanah Nasional Bhd, Employees’ Provident Fund, Global Infrastructure Partner/BlackRock and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority) or 25 years as a listed company?”
Delving further into the unmanned rail system that transports passengers between the terminal building and a satellite terminal which are 1.5km apart, Kadir wondered “who is to blame” for the embarrassment.

Well-verse with financial news reporting, he went on to present the timeline and developments starting with MAHB’s subsidiary Malaysia Airports (Sepang) Sdn Bhd inking an agreement with a consortium comprising Alstom, IJM Construction Sdn Bhd and Pestech Technology Sdn Bhd on June 14, 2024 to replace the original system which had been in place since 1998.

For the uninitiated, Alstom is a French technology company that has long been a contractor in Malaysia, especially in the infrastructure and transportation sectors. In the aerotrain contract, Alstom was given the task of being the lead project coordinator while its contract entails the supply of new carriages, system upgrades and testing.
IJM is one of the leading construction, property and infrastructure companies in Malaysia while Pestech Technology is a subsidiary of PESTECH International Bhd which is said to be an expert in the fields of factory automation, electricity and railway systems.
“The question is with the involvement of three well-known and proven companies, why can a simple project that simply replaces existing facilities be disrupted and when operational, its performance is very disappointing?” wondered the former group editor-in-chief of mainstream New Straits Times.

Datuk A. Kadir Jasin“Why did MAHB take so long to appoint a contractor? The original eerotrain operation was terminated in March 2023. The construction contract was signed just over a year ago. It seems as if MAHB is not ready or willing to spend.
“After that, the contractor failed to complete the task. The carriages were reportedly built in China.”
Even more embarrassing, according to Kadir, is when it was reported on Oct 16 that MAHB would appoint an independent assessor to review the design of the electrical supply and installation of the aerotrain system less than four months after it has been rolled out. –  Focus Malaysia

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