AirAsia, KLIA2 feud continues with spat over passenger fees

AirAsia has delivered a bitter rebuke following Malaysia Airports Holdings’ (MAHB) issue of a writ of summons for US$2.2m in claimed passenger service charges. The airline says it has not collected this sum from passengers, and refuses to do so. In addition, sister carrier AirAsia X issued an identical statement, saying that MAHB has issued a writ against it for MYR27mi in passenger service charges. “We shall defend these proceedings vigorously as we believe the claims are made without justification and are unreasonable,” said the carrier. It added that it has collected MRY50 per non-ASEAN passenger, and has paid this to Malaysia Airports. It contends that MAHB wanted to increase this by MYR23 in June, but that the airline refused to do so because it regards KLIA2 as a low-cost airport, and that passenger service fees (PSC) should hence be less than at KLIA’s original terminal. “We maintain that we are not obliged to collect the same PSC for passengers departing from KLIA2 and will not do so for the sake of all the stakeholders in the aviation and tourism industries,” it said. It goes on to list a number of complaints about KLIA2, which it feels are the basis for legal claims.<br/>