MALAYSIA AIRPORTS LAUNCHES SAFETY CAMPAIGN TO INCULCATE AND PROMOTE SAFETY CULTURE

November 30, 2011 For immediate release

MALAYSIA AIRPORTS LAUNCHES SAFETY CAMPAIGN TO INCULCATE AND PROMOTE SAFETY CULTURE

SEPANG - Malaysia Airports today launched the Airside Safety Campaign, a joint safety campaign with the objective to inculcate safety culture, in addition to promote awareness of safe working area and further stimulate safety-conscious to all airside workers.

KLIA in collaboration with the agencies such as Malaysia Airlines, KL Airports Services, LSG SkyChefs Sdn.Bhd, Petronas Dagangan, Shell Aviation, Exxonmobil, Air Asia and Air Asia X, jointly organizedthis apron safety campaign to educate all apron users on the importance of safety while they carry out their duties at the apron area.

Among the activities held during this month long campaign are Safety Model, Play Card Presentation, Safety Talk by participating agencies, Safety Exhibitions, Safety Quiz, Fire Fighting Simulation, FOD Hunt and Blood Donation by Tabung Darah Negara.

During this campaign, the apron users were exposed to proper handling of all equipments used at the apron area so as to safeguard the safety of the aircraft, crew and other workers, hence minimizing the probability of accidents to occur.

Dato' Azmi Murad, Senior General Manager, Operations Services of Malaysia Airports, who launched the campaign this morning said, "KLIA achievement is not only measured from the number of passengers, aircraft and cargo handled every year but safety aspect in the operations of the airports are also very important and must be in compliance to the regulatory-bodies such as Department Civil Aviation (DCA) and International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)."

He added, "The campaign is themed 'FOD! We See, We Pick, We are Safe' as we are calling for all airside staff to mind and pay attention to the foreign object debris (FOD), although it may be small in sizes, but it have potential to cause major incidents. We are giving the FOD a special attention this year although numbers of incidents caused by FOD is still minimal."

Dato' Azmi also said, "We would like to summon all agencies, especially those working at the apron area, to embrace the belief on the importance of working safely and keeping the workplace safe at all times, towards making KLIA as one of the safest airport to work in. We would like to stress not only on physically safe-conscious way of doing work, but also to encourage staff to always think and put safety as top priority at all times, at work and even at home. This safety culture should be embedded in our mind, body and soul."

The ultra modern airport was the first among five international airports in Malaysia to receive the Safety Management System (SMS) certification from DCA in 2009. The certification is to acknowledge the airport's conformance to all safety requirements and achieving continuous improvement in safety performance. These include the essential features of safety such as policy, strategic planning and implementation as well as promotion, records, staff training and competency.

The SMS certification is a testimony of Malaysia Airports' commitment to ensure the highest level of safety at our airports and to fully comply with the ICAO Safety Management System requirement. This certification further create the needs for us to keep the airport as a safe place to work and to maintain, sustain and further elevate the level of safety standards to the next level that we are committed to.

Through this campaign, it is Malaysia Airports' aspiration that the entire apron's workforce will continuously work safely, maintain a safe working environment and further reduce numbers of accidents at the apron.

In promoting the airside safety culture and awareness, apart from this campaign, Malaysia Airports also exercise prevention methods in its relentless effort to decrease airside incidents, such as Implementation of Demerit System, where driver who is involved in accident or breached a regulations, will not be allowed to drive for certain period of time and will be given demerit point. Driving permit will be confiscated when demerit point reached 12 points or above and driver will not be allowed to drive in airside for a year.

Malaysia Airports also sets up the age limit of each type of vehicle to ensure all vehicle is fit for operations and to avoid from oil spillages. Airside drivers are also provided with the KLIA Airside Drivers Safety Handbook as a guidelines for drivers in airside. They are also required to attend refresher briefing to refresh them of the safety and security regulation when driving at the airside areas.

The Occupational Safety & Health (OSHA) Act 1994 provides the legislative frame work to promote, stimulate and encourage high standards of safety and health at work. The long term goal of the act is to create a healthy and safe working culture among all the employees and employers and KLIA advocates this act strictly as a working culture. OSHA 94 is under Department of OSHA, Ministry of Human Resources Malaysia.

ends