KOTA KINABALU: Passengers are willing to wait at the Kota Kinabalu International Airport for hours to catch the next flight out.

       Sharif Suhaili Sharif Zainal Abidin, said he needed to take a flight to attend a training course in Johor.

       The 24-year-old, who was staring at the flight schedule on Friday (April 19) morning, said he was scheduled to take AirAsia's AK5305 flight at 2pm.

       "There is no update if the flight will take off," he said.

       On Friday morning, almost all flights were suspended following the volcanic eruption of Mount Ruang in Sulawesi.

       However, some airlines have resumed operations.

       ALSO READ: Malaysia Airlines cancels Sabah, Sarawak flights due to Mt Ruang eruption

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       Also among the lucky ones were Cement Industries (Sabah) chairman Datuk Japlin Akim, who secured a 9.45pm flight for Kuala Lumpur on Friday.

       He was initially scheduled to take the Malaysia Airlines flight to Kuala Lumpur on Thursday.

       "I came back (to the airport this morning) and put myself on standby. Managed to secure a seat later tonight," he said.

       Some 20,000 passengers were affected by the suspension of flights at the three airports in Sabah, namely Sandakan, Tawau and Kota Kinabalu, as well as in Labuan after the volcanic eruption caused a plume of ash to drift to nearby airspace.