Tony Fernandes UPSET with Australia’s rising airport fees

SYDNEY - AirAsia’s founder and chief executive, Tony Fernandes, is afraid that Australia’s pricey airport charges will deter tourists from flying with low-cost carrier, AirAsia.

He voiced his dissatisfaction at Australia’s airport charges and taxes which he said at AUD$67 (RM190) were some of the highest in the world, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.

AirAsia only paid on average about AUD13 (RM37) in other parts of the world. “Tourists won’t come forever because there are plenty of choices,” he told reporters in Sydney.

In an effort to regain support following the tragedy of Indonesia AirAsia flight QZ8501 which crashed en route from Indonesia to Singapore on December 18 last year, AirAsia offered fares for as low as AUD$67 for flights from Australia to Phuket, Ho Chi Minh City and Penang.

While the crash had minimal impact on bookings for flights in Australia, the delay of the launch of services between Bali and Melbourne by affiliate airline AirAsia Indonesia X had caused problems.

The delay to gaining approval for an air operator’s certificate from the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) in Australia resulted in the re-routing of angry passengers on flights via Kuala Lumpur, or offering refunds or credits for other flights.

“We had a tough time from the regulator (in Australia) which wanted a letter from the Europeans to say nothing was wrong with Indonesia AirAsia X,” explained Fernandes. He said they were blocked by CASA two days before Christmas, and three days after Christmas, the day Indonesia AirAsia flight QZ8501 crashed.

Now that AirAsia was back in expansion mode, Fernandes wanted to boost the airline’s services between Sydney and Kuala Lumpur from once to twice a day, and would look at resuming flights to Adelaide which had been abandoned last month due to mounting losses. Despite AirAsia losing money on routes to Australia, Fernandes was optimistic that the company would bounce back. -FMT