PUTRAJAYA: The Immigration Department has received feedback from two airlines over issues involving Malaysian International Passport (PMA) with validity periods exceeding 10 years.
Immigration Department director-general Datuk Zakaria Shaaban, however, declined to name the carriers.
“So far, we have received feedback from only two. But I am not sure about the others, as they may not have encountered the issue or may not have provided feedback,” he said during a press conference here on Thursday (Aug 13).
He said the issue stemmed from the systems used by certain airlines and not because Malaysian passports were not accepted by other countries.
“Actually, we have no problem with acceptance by foreign countries. All countries accept our passports even when their validity exceeds 10 years,” he said.
According to Zakaria, the systems used by certain airlines do not support passport validity periods exceeding 10 years.
“The problem now is only with the airline companies,” he said.
He said there were also passengers who had travelled using passports valid for more than 10 years without encountering problems during check-in.
According to him, some airlines may have systems capable of processing such passports, while the check-in process with others could take longer.
Zakaria also stressed that the Immigration Department was not blaming the airlines over the issue.
“We are not blaming the airlines. I want to stress that we are not blaming any party in this matter,” he said.
