‘Airport scrutiny should have begun earlier’

SEPANG: The Malaysian Aviation Commission (Mavcom), which is rolling out the Airports Quality of Service framework in stages starting the third quarter this year, should have looked into scrutinising airports right in the beginning instead of an afterthought, said deputy group CEO, digital, transformation, corporate services Aireen Omar.

She said Mavcom should have looked at the industry as a whole from the beginning and how it could help to bring in more tourists and growth.

Aireen added airports should have been part of the process and not slotted in as an afterthought later.

She said checks on airports should have started from the beginning to see how they were facilitating traffic growth for the country, including how fairly they charged airport taxes, depending on the services and facilities provided.

“They need to start a benchmark to see whether the services provided at each airport is of the standards that we should try to aim before they start thinking of increasing any charges. Right now as it is, if you increase the charges, it is on what basis? Have we seen any improvement in any of the services or so to the users of the airports, including passengers and airlines? You don’t see any differences or changes.”

Aireen had previously opposed Mavcom’s move to standardise the passenger service charge at KLIA and klia2, justifying that both were two vastly different airport terminals providing different levels of services and facilities.

Last month, Mavcom said it intended to penalise airport operators if they do not meet the service indicators stipulated in the new Airports Quality of Service framework. The penalty, which varies according to the service quality category and type of airport, could be up to 5% of the airport’s aeronautical revenue.

“Whether the formula that they’re using now is the right way, I don’t know. There’s a lot of thought that needs to be put into it and it has to be a fair representative of all users as well.”