KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 20 — The Malaysian Aviation Commission (Mavcom) has imposed financial penalties on on AirAsia Berhad (AirAsia), AirAsia X Berhad (AirAsia X) and Malaysia Airports (Sepang) Sdn Bhd (MA Sepang), a subsidiary of Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (MAHB).

According to a statement by Mavcom today, the financial penalties imposed on AirAsia and AirAsia X, amounting to RM2,000,000 each, were due to the airlines’ continued charging of credit card, debit card and online banking processing fees separate from their base fares.

“(This is) in contravention of the Malaysian Aviation Consumer Protection Code 2016 (MACPC), for the period from Aug 10, 2019 to Sept 11,  2019.

“This is the second time AirAsia and AirAsia X have been found not in compliance with this MACPC requirement,” the statement said. 

As for MA Sepang, it was penalised RM856,875 due to their failure to meet targets set by Mavcom in its Airports Quality of Service Framework (Airports QoS Framework) during the second quarter of 2019.

According to the statement also, Mavcom said, AirAsia, AirAsia X and MA Sepang were informed of their respective financial penalties on January 16. 

The MACPC came into force on July 1, 2016 and was subsequently amended and later took effect on June 1 last year, to further protect consumers’ interests.

One of the amendments, subparagraph 3(2) of the MACPC, imposes disclosure requirements for airline fares.

Section 69(4) of the Malaysian Aviation Commission Act 2015 [Act 771] together with paragraph 22 of the MACPC, empowers the Commission to impose a financial penalty for a non-compliance of the MACPC, an amount not exceeding RM200,000.

“In the case of a second or subsequent non-compliance, an amount ten times of the financial penalty which was imposed for the first non-compliance,” Mavcom said in the statement.

The Commission added that it had previously in September last year 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 to August 9 last year.

“As both AirAsia and AirAsia X have been found to contravene subparagraph 3(2) of the MACPC again, even after the imposition of financial penalty for their first non-compliance, Mavcom has decided to impose both airlines a penalty of RM2,000,000 each, being 10 times the financial penalty imposed in September 2019, for the period from August 10 to September 11, 2019 as prescribed by Act 771,” Mavcom said.

Meanwhile, the Airports QoS Framework, which came into effect at both KLIA and KLIA2, September 1, 2018, was introduced to ensure that airport operators provide consumers good standards of infrastructure and services at airports.

In this respect, Mavcom found that MA Sepang failed to meet several requirements of the framework during the period of April 1 to June 30, 2019.

“In accordance with section 98A(3)(b) of Act 771, the Commission has imposed a financial penalty amounting to RM 856,875 on MA Sepang,” it said.