KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Public Transport Users Association (4PAM) has called for the disbandment of the Malaysian Aviation Commission (Mavcom) over its failure to come up with passenger service charge (PSC) rates that are acceptable to all parties.
“We cannot afford to have airlines disrupting services following this issue,” said 4PAM president Ajit Johl today.
“The PSC has been a major thorn in the industry, especially for low-cost operators and the lawsuit only reaffirms this.
“Mavcom has yet to offer a credible explanation why PSC rates are streamlined across the airports.
“We urge the transport minister to immediately haul up Mavcom and create a council of stakeholders to help resolve this dispute.”
On Feb 1, the PSC, also known as airport tax, levied on non-Asean international passengers departing from klia2 was raised from RM50 to RM73.
At present, PSC rates stand at RM11 for domestic destinations, RM35 for Asean destinations and RM73 for international destinations.
Ajit said 4PAM had objected to the rate hike and urged the previous administration to maintain the old rate until a PSC model that was acceptable to all stakeholders was found.
“Sadly, this request was turned down and today we are witnessing the unwanted lawsuit, which can easily be resolved, if there is a neutral table.”
He added that since Mavcom did not have the capability to solve the dispute, 4PAM was offering itself to be the mediator on condition that Mavcom was dissolved.
Recently, AirAsia Group Bhd and AirAsia X Bhd defended their refusals to collect the additional RM23 at klia2.
They said passengers at klia2 should not be charged the same rate as passengers at KLIA.
On Dec 11, AirAsia Group’s unit AirAsia Bhd (AAB) was served a writ of summons by Malaysia Airports (Sepang) Sdn Bhd for RM9.4 million in PSC that AAB had not and refused to collect from passengers.
AirAsia X also said it had been served with an unsealed copy of a writ of summons for RM26.7 million in alleged PSC arrears.