After a good breakfast at the Kingwood Hotel in Sibu, I used Grab to get to the airport. I could see a long queue for the kiosk and it looked like bedlam in the bag-drop area. With no luggage and a moble boarding pass, I went airside and waited over an hour till the scheduled departure time.
Another flight was delayed and the staff were working madly to get that flight in the air before they could work on our flight. About thirty minutes after their scheduled departure, the staff boarded the few straggling passengers.
We ended up facing the same delay. The captain apologised once we were on board, explaining that it was due to congestion in the check-in area. This is the Sunday before many people would go back to work/school after a week of Chinese New Year holidays. Understandable but highly unusual for AirAsia to have a delay.
Once airborne, it was a short flight to Kuching where a friend, Boo, picked me up for lunch before dropping me home.