Friday, November 18, 2011

AIR ASIA FIGHT FOR CHEAPER AIR TRAVEL

AirAsia has been fighting to make them cheaper for the common man. Airport taxes are paid by Malaysians and passengers. The money doesn't go to AirAsia but MAHB.'' He added on Twitter that “MAHB doesn't help improve guest handling facilities like signage, boarding area at gate and PA system. Why charge more PSC.''

His idea of baring it all is to tell passengers that the airline collects the PSC for MAHB and no part of the PSC goes to the airline. PSC is the payment for the use of a respective airport by a traveller.

He also lashed out at both MAHB and the Transport Ministry, asking who the ministry was defending? He claimed in his twits: “Are they defending the people to make sure they get good value for the RM25 airport tax. They are the regulators ...”

Apparently he had told his decision to pass the buck back to MAHB on Sunday to some parties, but when asked, Fernandes declined to elaborate.

Airlines in this country collect the PSC for the airport operator and this decision was made by the Government way back in the 1980s. That was decided with the consumer in mind as the Government did not want to inconvenient the traveller. The PSC charges are paid when purchasing the ticket.

If indeed AirAsia does not want to collect the PSC for MAHB, then any decision made by the Government will have to take into consideration the views of other airlines which are now collecting the PSC for MAHB. “That's the norm here and if you change the rule for one you have to change for all,'' said a source. But in some airports such as in Jakarta and Tokyo, the airports collect their own charges by having their own counters or vending machines. That model can be replicated here.

There are “pros and cons to the airport operator collecting the PSC. The good thing is that passengers need not worry about refunds of PSC if they cancel their flight as they only pay for the PSC on the day they travel and not when they purchase the ticket. “Under the current system, the airport operator is only paid the PSC 45 days after travel but that will not be the case if the airport operator collects it. It would also save the MAHB 1.25% in clearing fee if it collects the PSC directly from the passengers,'' said a source.

Fernandes also said there were too many empty promises made by MAHB and the airlines were blamed for its poor performance.

He also questioned the need for a third runway at the KL International Airport (KLIA). “Why is KLIA building a third runway when they don't use dual mode on two runways? Heathrow has 60 million passengers with two runways. Fixing the air traffic system would have been cheaper than building another runway,” he said.

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