Act against airlines still charging processing fees, Mavcom told

PETALING JAYA: The Malaysian Aviation Commission (Mavcom) has been urged to act against airlines which continue charging processing fees despite the directive to cease doing so in June.

Federation of Malaysian Consumers Association CEO Paul Selvaraj said Mavcom makes the regulations and must enforce them.

“Punish those who are stubborn regardless of who they are,” he said to FMT.

Mavcom has reportedly issued show-cause letters to several airlines over the matter, although it did not reveal the identity of the airlines in question.

Just days ago, though, The Edge financial daily said low-cost carrier AirAsia Group Bhd and AirAsia X Bhd could face a fine for continuing to charge a processing fee for tickets bought through credit card or online banking.

AirAsia had said on July 31 that it would remove the processing fee for such payments from October.

Passengers using AirAsia’s BigPay e-wallet are not charged any processing fees.

FMT has contacted AirAsia for comment.

Selvaraj called for all airlines to adhere to a single pricing policy, in which the price advertised is the nett price paid by consumers.

“There should be no hidden charges. There is no good reason for anyone to hide prices,” he added.

“You can give a breakdown of the price in the bill so that customers know what they are paying for, but you must tell the customers upfront what the final price is.”

Adding that the single price policy had been implemented overseas, he said there was no reason why the same could not be done here. - FMT