MAHB: klia2 not a low-cost terminal
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) clarified that klia2 is not a low-cost airport terminal.
MAHB, in a statement, said the reference by Petaling Jaya Utara member of parliament Tony Pua to a report published by an online portal two days ago was incorrect.
“MAHB, together with the government, had made the strategic decision to build a second permanent terminal for Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) that will accommodate increased capacity requirements, or in other words, future growth.
“In building it, we considered and accommodated the needs of all stakeholders, including airlines, government authorities and the community.
“This was a necessary approach because an airport system is a long-term public infrastructure that must serve the needs of the country’s current and future civil aviation industry. This development has no bearing on the Passenger Service Charge (PSC) rates,” it said.
MAHB said in January, the government had made the decision to equalise PSC for the two terminals in KLIA and all other airports in Malaysia.
“It was done after an extensive study by the Malaysian Aviation Commission (Mavcom) on aviation charges across the industry.
“Since then, the PSC rates have been equalised for all airports at RM73 for non-Asean international, RM35 for Asean, and RM11 for domestic, with the exception of non-Asean international PSC rate, specifically at klia2 that remained lower at RM50.
“In fact, the new tier for Asean PSC rates was introduced at a reduced rate of 46 per cent from RM65 to RM35 that benefited about 18 million passengers and made the airlines more competitive for the Asean routes, as part of the government’s efforts in attracting more tourist arrivals from Asean countries.”
It added that there was a PSC rate mechanism that was put in place by the government in the operating agreement.
It stressed that the PSC fee increment announcement was not a method for the company to deal with any debt obligations of MAHB, as quoted by Pua in the article.
It added that the PSC rates were independent of the cost of airport development.
While some other countries charged passengers with a separate airport development fee in addition to the PSC, this was not the case in Malaysia.
“Our PSC rates remain one of the cheapest in the region and in the world, even after the full equalisation”.
MAHB added that it had explained to Pua during the Public Accounts Committee session that after numerous engagements with key stakeholders, the klia2 development had undergone significant scope increase due to changing requirements by the key stakeholders, including government agencies and AirAsia.
Pua had claimed that it was unreasonable to equalise the fees charged by klia2 and KLIA by claiming their facilities were comparable.