MAVCOM imposes fines on airline and aerodrome operators again

On 20 January 2020, the Malaysian Aviation Commission (‘MAVCOM’) issued an announcement stating that it had imposed a fine of RM2,000,000.00 each on two airline operators, AirAsia Berhad and AirAsia X Berhad (collectively ‘AirAsia’), and a fine of RM856,875.00 on the operator of KLIA and klia2, Malaysian Airports (Sepang) Sdn Bhd (‘MASSB’).
 
The fines were imposed on AirAsia for continuing to charge credit card, debit card and online banking processing fees separately from their base fares in breach of paragraph 3(2) of the Malaysian Aviation Consumer Protection Code 2016 which requires full disclosure of the final price of the airfare. The fines imposed were in respect of breaches that occurred from 10 August 2019 to 11 September 2019.
 
The fine was imposed on MASSB as MAVCOM found that MASSB had failed to meet several service level requirements set by it under the Airports Quality of Service Framework at KLIA and klia2 during the period from 1 April 2019 to 30 June 2019.
 
This was the second time that MAVCOM has imposed fines on AirAsia and MASSB for non-compliance with their respective obligations under the Malaysian Aviation Consumer Protection Code 2016 and the Airports Quality of Service Framework. On 10 September 2019, MAVCOM had imposed a fine of RM200,000.00 on each of the two airline operators for contravention of the Malaysian Aviation Consumer Protection Code 2016 and RM1,179,000.00 on MASSB for failure to meet the service standards set by MAVCOM under the Airports Quality of Service Framework.