This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly, on November 23 - 29, 2015.

Low-cost carrier terminal klia2 has been operating for over two years now but there seems to be no end to its repair works.

The latest problem to plague the RM4 billion airport is a leak in the underground fuel pipelines.

The leak was detected on Oct 25 at bays Q10 and Q12 but as at press time, sources with knowledge of the matter say its cause has yet to be identified. They say once the leak is found, it would take at least three weeks to repair it.

This complication comes amid reports of depressions on the apron that have caused water to pool as well as complaints that the runway has become uneven.

In fact, it is understood that repair works are being carried out on the tarmac every night. Sources say the two-year-old runway is closed from 11pm to 6.30am to smooth out the bumps.

Interestingly, this is not the first time a leak has occurred in the fuel pipelines.

Sources tell The Edge that one was previously discovered in the K bays in the middle of last year. That leak was repaired in five days. The present leak, however, is taking much longer to fix and has required excavation to identify its source.

All this begs the question as to how fuel pipelines that were designed to last more than two decades can fail twice in slightly over two years.

When contacted, Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) referred The Edge to its Oct 26 statement.

“The leak from the fuel pipeline discovered at klia2 was not caused by soil depression,” says the statement, which also points out that Kuala Lumpur Aviation Fuelling System Sdn Bhd (KAFS) is responsible for the management, operation and maintenance of the pipelines.

According to KAFS, since the pipelines are resting on pile-to-set foundations, they should not be affected by soil settlement.

KAFS is 65%-controlled by Petronas Dagangan Bhd while MAHB has a 20% stake in it via its subsidiary Malaysia Airports (Properties) Sdn Bhd. The remaining 15% is controlled by Malaysia Airlines Bhd.

However, as the owner and operator of klia2, how much will MAHB have to fork out for such maintenance work? In a parliamentary reply earlier this year, it was revealed that MAHB has spent RM76.5 million on repairing the airport since it opened in June 2013.

Moving forward, it remains to be seen if MAHB can continue to downplay the severity of the problems plaguing the airport. While some cracks would have been inevitable, leaking fuel pipelines are serious and dangerous. Aviation fuel has a flashpoint of only 38°C. This means that the leak could have spontaneously combusted at that temperature had it not been detected.

Nevertheless, there is no immediate danger of that happening as the fuel lines have been shut off and the leaked fuel removed. At this point, the problem only presents an additional cost to MAHB as well as inconvenience to AirAsia X Bhd, which relies on those bays for its A330s.

However, as MAHB’s recent statement points out, there are nine other contact bays and six remote bays available for wide-body aircraft.

Nonetheless, AirAsia X’s operations may be affected as no fuel can be supplied by the underground pipelines to nine of the wide bays, including Q10 and Q12, until the leak is fixed. Instead, its aircraft will have to be refuelled by fuel bowsers or tankers, which are less efficient.

“MAHB will be engaging closely with the airlines in order to brief them and provide reassurance that the flight operations will not be affected,” says the airport operator in the statement.

That said, the latest pipeline leak spells more ammunition for AirAsia Bhd, which earlier this year sued MAHB for RM409 million for difficulties caused by operating out of klia2.

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