High Court rules in favour of Malaysia Airports, AirAsia to comply

The High Court has ruled in favour of Malaysia Airports in the civil suits against AirAsia over unpaid passenger service charges and late payment charges. The summary judgment by the High Court also clarifies the issue of passenger service charges implementation by MAHB and AirAsia.In January 2017, the government of Malaysia gazetted the equalisation of passenger service charges at all airports in Malaysia. The equalisation of passenger service charges for non-ASEAN international passengers of RM73 came into effect a year later in 2018. As such, all airlines operating from both terminals at KL International Airport will have to collect from passengers and pay the same amount of passenger service charges to Malaysia Airports.The war between the two broke out when AirAsia CEO said on Facebook early this year that Malaysia Airports has to stop charging and collecting the RM3 ‘klia2 fee’. This was a development of an initial clashing when MAHB sued AirAsia for refusing to collect the additional RM23 passenger service charges per passenger at klia2. According to Malaysia Airports group chief executive officer Raja Azmi Raja Nazuddin, not only will MAHB be able to collect the gazetted passenger service charges amount, but it can also have an environment of fairer competition between airlines operating at these two terminals.He said that this too allows Malaysia to be better aligned to international guidelines, including with the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) principle of non-discriminatory pricing at airports.The High Court had dismissed AirAsia’s striking out application and allowed summary judgments by Malaysia Airports be entered on AirAsia in the three suits against the company.(Photo courtesy: 123RF)