Ferry services resume: Kuala Kedah-Langkawi routes resume after storm delays

ALOR SETAR, Sept 22 — Ferry operations at the Kuala Kedah Passenger Terminal, which were temporarily suspended from Thursday to yesterday following warnings of strong winds and rough seas, resumed today.

Konsortium Ferrylines Ventures Sdn Bhd managing director Captain Dr Baharin Baharom said this involved four ferry trips from Kuala Kedah to Langkawi and five ferry trips from Langkawi to Kuala Kedah.

“After three days of interruption of operations, the first ferry trip from Kuala Kedah was at 1.30pm today, while the first trip from Langkawi to Kuala Kedah was at 10.30am this morning,” he said when welcomed at the Kuala Kedah Passenger Terminal today.

“The weather conditions are good today and we will monitor whether the terminal can continue to operate or not as we have been informed that there will be a transition phase of the monsoon from this Tuesday which will bring heavy rains and strong winds.”

He said that if there is a storm and strong winds that cause the ferry trip to be interrupted, the ferry service and roll-on/roll-off (RORO) ferry trip will be moved to Kuala Perlis Passenger Terminal.

“We will increase the number of ferries as much as possible in Kuala Perlis. But if you see that the number of tourists entering Langkawi has decreased, it may be because the school holidays are over or they are worried when they see the rough sea conditions as reported on social media,” he said.

Meanwhile, Baharin said that after ferry services were cancelled due to bad weather, more than 6,000 passengers have requested refunds while more than 5,000 have changed their ticket dates and itinerary to Kuala Perlis.

“Currently, more than RM130,000 has been returned to the affected passengers. We admit that the consortium is a little affected as it involves a large number of passengers estimated at more than 12,000 people,” he said.

“We have received a lot of requests (for returns), which is why we are operating 24 hours a day because we want to make sure that the affected passengers get their money back as quickly as possible.”

Ferry passenger Siti Zaharah Mansor, 55, from Sik, said she was with 10 family members, including her grandson Muhammad Faris Zaquan Makhruzi, 13, who is suffering from bone cancer, in Langkawi on Tuesday, and was due to return to Kuala Kedah yesterday.

“We saw a notice about the cancellation of ferry services, so whether we liked it or not, we had to change the date of our tickets. When we checked at the ticket office, there was a ferry this morning, so we got the tickets for the 10:30 ferry.

“It was a quiet crossing… the waves were calm. We always go to Langkawi but this is the first time we have run aground and it is something that cannot be predicted so we have to be patient,” she said.

She also said that this was her grandson’s first trip to Langkawi after recovering from his illness, as the last time the boy had holidayed on the island was when he was three years old.

Meanwhile, Nurkhairina Arrysya Shaiful Zubaid, 19, from Sungai Petani, said she went to Langkawi on Monday to see her father who works there and was supposed to return on Thursday.

“When I was informed that the ferry was delayed due to bad weather, I requested a refund from the ferry management and changed the travel date to today. The weather conditions were good today and the waves were calm,” she added. — Bernama