Malaysia Airport seeks owner of Boeing 747s left at KLIA

Three "international" airplanes were left abandoned at the Malaysian airport. When the owner of the aircraft was called out through advertisement, no one came forward.

According to RT, three 747-200F aircraft were left abandoned, including two passenger aircraft and one cargo plane. When nobody came forward, Operators of Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) were compelled to advertise the three planes in a Malaysian newspaper.  

On Monday, an advertisement appeared in Malaysian publication, The Star which said: "If you fail to collect the aircraft within 14 days of the date of this notice, we reserve the right to sell or otherwise dispose of the aircraft".

Bloomberg news agency was told by Zainol Mohd Isa, the contact person listed in the advertisement that the planes have been abandoned for a year. They have the information of the owner, but no contact was made regarding the removal of the planes, as reported by The Guardian.

"We have been in communication with the so-called owner, but they have not been responding to take away the aircraft. That's why we go through this process to legalise whatever actions we want to take," Zainol said. "We want to clear the area, we want to utilise our parking bay."

However, Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd believes that the owner is either no longer has authority over the planes. As it said in a statement, "The giving of such notice by way of advertisement is a common and reasonable step in the process of debt recovery, especially in cases where the company concerned has ceased operations and is a foreign entity," it said.

As mentioned by Straits Times, aviation enthusiasts thought that the three left out aircraft belong to Malaysia Airlines. The theory came into being after finding out that MasKargo had taken two of the planes from Air Atlanta Icelandic.

On hearing that, MAS media relations officer reacted and claimed that they do not possess any of the three Boeing 747-200F aircraft. And if it had been theirs, they would have claimed it. On the other hand, Air Atlanta Icelandic also told The Star that it also does not own any of the three aircraft.  

Baldvin M. Hermannsson, the company's senior vice president of sales and marketing explained in an email that the three aircraft are of Air Atlantia. But in 2010, these were then returned to their owner. As he said, they don't have knowledge about the current owner of the planes.

He did not mention the name of the owner but added that the three aircraft are no longer registered in the Registry of the Icelandic Civil Aviation Authority. If the true owner did not come forward within 15 days, the authority will take some action on its own.