KUALA LUMPUR: Low-cost carriers AirAsia Bhd and AirAsia X Bhd have been slapped with fines of RM2 million each by the Malaysian Aviation Commission (Mavcom).
Mavcom also fined Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd’s subsidiary Malaysia Airports (Sepang) Sdn Bhd (MA Sepang) RM856,875 for failing to meet targets set by the former in its Airports Quality of Service framework.
The commission said the penalties against AirAsia and AirAsia X were due to processing fee impediments from August 10 to September 11 last year.
“The financial penalties were due to the airlines’ continued charging of credit card, debit card and online banking processing fees separate from their base fares, in contravention of the Malaysian Aviation Consumer Protection Code 2016 (MACPC),” Mavcom said in a statement today.
This was the second time AirAsia and AirAsia X have been penalised for not complying with MACPC.
The MACPC came into force on July 1, 2016, and was subsequently enhanced with amendments that took effect on June 1 last year to further protect consumers’ interests.
Mavcom noted that one of the amendments, subparagraph 3(2) of the MACPC, imposes disclosure requirements for airline fares.
Under the Section 69(4) of the Malaysian Aviation Commission Act 2015 [Act 771] together with paragraph 22 of the MACPC, it empowers the commission to impose a financial penalty for a non-compliance of the MACPC, an amount not exceeding RM200,000.
For a second or subsequent non-compliance, Mavcom can impose an amount 10 times of the financial penalty imposed for the first non-compliance.
The commission previously in September imposed financial penalties of RM200,000 each for AirAsia’s and AirAsia X’s first contravention of subparagraph 3(2) of the MACPC for charging credit card, debit card and online banking processing fees separate from their base fares, in contravention of subparagraph 3(2) of the MACPC, for the period from June 1, 2019 to August 9, 2019.
On MA Sepang penalty, Mavcom said: “MA Sepang failed to meet several requirements of the Airports QoS Framework during the period of April 1, 2019 to June 30, 2019. In accordance with section 98A(3)(b) of Act 771, the commission imposed a financial penalty amounting to RM856,875 on MA Sepang.”
The framework, which came into effect at both Kuala Lumpur International Airport Terminals 1 and 2 on September 1, 2018, was introduced to ensure that airport operators provide consumers good standards of infrastructure and services.