KUALA LUMPUR: Airports Council International (ACI) Asia Pacific has urged Malaysia to finalise the reform of the aeronautical charges regulatory framework of airports in the country.
The airports association said this would provide a stable perspective to airport operator Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd, which will incur significant infrastructure investments over the next years.
ACI regional director Patti Chau said airports today are sophisticated, business-oriented service providers.
“Any regulatory intervention should be proportionate to the need of all relevant stakeholders,” she said in a statement today.
Chau said the industry body representing the region’s airports advocated for the airport operators’ interests to be duly recognised.
“What is needed is a stable, consistent and proportionate economic oversight framework which facilitates timely investment in airport capacity,” she added.
ACI Asia-Pacific hopes the model will provide adequate incentives in infrastructure investments that are aligned with government objectives, especially in view of the critical transfer of risk of capital investment from the government to the airport operator.
It said the outcome was in response to earlier consultations with Malaysian Aviation Commission (Mavcom) including some critical features in tailoring the framework to the needs of the country, aviation stakeholders and communities they serve.
ACI said airport competitiveness should be measured not only in terms of level of charges, but also quality of customer service.
Any charging scheme should ensure recovery of all costs at the airport network level while providing for long-term economic sustainability within the network, it added.