KUALA LUMPUR, 16 May 2019: AirAsia and AirAsia X filed for a judicial review, Tuesday, claiming the Malaysian Aviation Commission has contravened the transport act by declining to decide on an ongoing dispute with Malaysian Airports
The judicial review application is confined to issues relating to the Passenger Service Charge (“PSC”) and alleged poor level of service at klia2.
The airline group alleged in its press statement that the airport operator had filed several court actions including defamation against the AirAsia group’s top executives for making press statements on the dispute.
It also claimed the airlines refused to collect the increased PSC charges from passengers.
In response, the airlines argued that the increased PSC was arbitrary and burdened the travelling public and was unjustified as the levels of service at klia2 was inferior to that of KLIA where passengers pay the same charges.
The airlines have argued that in most countries where low-cost travel has mushroomed the charges for services at low-cost airports are significantly lower than that for airports that cater to full-service airlines;
The two airlines have also made a counterclaim for MYR 480 million against MASSB for damages incurred as a result of the poor level of service at klia2.
While claiming they tried to engage both MASSB and MAVCOM to resolve the disputes through the statutory dispute structure provided by the MAVCOM Act, MAVCOM has refused to decide on the disputes and a ruling is currently pending disposal by the Court.
In this regard, AirAsia and AirAsia X are asking for a mandamus* to compel MAVCOM to adjudicate on the disputes between AirAsia, AirAsia X and MASSB in accordance with its statutory duty under the MAVCOM Act.
• Mandamus is a judicial remedy in the form of a court order which commands an individual, organization (e.g. government), administrative tribunal, quasi-judicial body or court to perform some specific act which that body is obliged under law to do and in certain cases one of statutory duty.
