‘New airport tax levels playing field’

PETALING JAYA: The announcement by Malaysian Aviation Commission (Mavcom) on the new passenger service charge (PSC) will help level the playing field.

Malaysia Airlines Berhad group chief executive Peter Bellew said it will play an important part in the turnaround of Malaysia Airlines, adding that it had been tough getting the PSC equalised at KLIA and klia2.

He pointed out in a statement that the new charges will see a reduction of some RM30 per passenger for Asean passengers at KLIA, which will be the same fee as klia2.

“The Kuala Lumpur airport charges will be equal for domestic and Asean flights from Jan 1 next year and the authorities plan full equalisation by Jan 1, 2018,” Bellew said.

He said customers will have the option to choose whatever terminal they wish in Kuala Lumpur and MAS will have a “Freedom Fares” sale from today until Nov 8 on selected Asean routes with fully inclusive fares from RM149 and domestic fares from RM99.

Bellew said MAS looks forward to working with Mavcom to implement full equalisation in 2018 for international flights.

Mavcom said Malaysia was the first Asean country to introduce a PSC tier for travel to Asean nations.