MAVCOM: CONSUMERS TAKE PRECEDENCE
Commission says it will not risk overcapacity on certain routes
THE Malaysian Aviation Commission (Mavcom) said the air traffic rights (ATRs) allocation is made following close consultation and after taking into consideration the views of all Malaysian carriers.
In a statement yesterday, Mavcom said the principles and criteria applied in any ATR allocation had been made known to all Malaysian carriers.
This was in response to a recent media report on Mavcom decision to reject AirAsia Bhd’s application for more flights on the Kuala Lumpur-Haikou and Kota Kinabalu-Sandakan routes.
The commission said in allocat- ing the ATRs, it aimed to facilitate orderly growth while also considering the risk of overcapacity, where the supply of seats far exceeds passenger demand on a particular route.
Mavcom said route overcapacity could lead to heightened risks of unutilised seats and result in flight cancellations and merging of flights, which were detrimental to passenger convenience.
It added that overcapacity also gave rise to risks of a carrier exiting a route and lessening competition and consumer choice on that route in the long term.
Mavcom said as at April 30, it had awarded 397 ATRs to Malaysian carriers, 295 of which were utilised and 102 either not used or surrendered back to the commission.
On the Kota Kinabalu-Sandakan and Kuala Lumpur-Haikou routes, Mavcom said it allocated the ATRs after considering a number of factors.
In the case of the Kota Kinabalu-Sandakan route, this route was served by AirAsia (18 weekly trips), Malaysia Airlines (seven weekly trips) and MASwings (21 weekly trips) as at December.
On January 29, the commission approved AirAsia’s application for seven additional trips per week, bringing its total number of trips for this particular route to 25 weekly trips.
In February, AirAsia applied for an additional seven weekly trips on the route, which the commission rejected because of a risk of overcapacity.
For the Kuala Lumpur-Haikou route, it was served by Malaysia Airlines and Malindo Air (two weekly trips each) as at December.
AirAsia had previously operated this route but terminated its services in 2012.
On February 21, AirAsia applied to operate seven weekly trips on the route. However, the commission on April 3 awarded AirAsia only four weekly trips due to fears of overcapacity.
Mavcom said AirAsia could resubmit its applications for both routes in October.