Our airport fee lowest in the region, says MAHB

PETALING JAYA: The country’s main airports operator Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) has defended the passenger service charges (PSC) imposed on outbound travellers as well as the service levels at klia2 following criticism from industry leaders.

MAHB was responding to AirAsia Group chief executive Tony Fernandes, who took to Twitter yesterday to complain about the two issues following tweets from other social media users.

The aviation tycoon said AirAsia X was under great pressure.

“Malaysia Airports wants to increase tax and is claiming 50 million. We kept tax now at RM50, fighting for the rakyat. We have been trying hard to keep fares low as the ringgit is low and fuel (prices) are increasing,” he said on the PSC.

He also accused the Malaysian Aviation Commission (Mavcom) of doing little to protect airlines.

“Service is so poor at klia2, yet we have to pay the same, and Mavcom wants to give a monopoly like MAHB even more income by raising airport tax.”

Raja Azmi Raja Nazuddin

However, MAHB acting group CEO Raja Azmi Raja Nazuddin told FMT that Putrajaya’s decision to equalise the PSC at both terminals at RM73 must be respected.

“The government, in making the decision, also took the people’s interest into consideration as the PSC for Asean international passengers were equalised lower to RM35 since the majority of the Malaysian public travel mainly to destinations in Asean countries.”

As of September, he said, passenger traffic movement data showed only 13% of total passengers at klia2 would be affected by the move to equalise the non-Asean PSC to RM73.

“Of the 3.15 million departing passengers for non-Asean destinations at klia2 year-to-date, around 70% are foreigners who likely pay a higher PSC at their country of origin, especially as our charges are already the lowest in the region,” he added.

As for service levels at klia2, Raja Azmi said the company had never treated any of its airports differently.

“In Mavcom’s recent quality of service audit of KLIA and klia2, both airports scored nearly equivalent scores where klia2 scored 97% and 98% for cleanliness of passenger and staff washrooms respectively, overachieving targets of 90% and 80%,” he said. -FMT