‘AirAsia must be held accountable over rescheduling’
KUCHING: The Malaysian Aviation Commission (Mavcom) should hold AirAsia accountable for the frequent and constant delays as well as rescheduling of domestic flights during the festive season, says Dr Kelvin Yii.
The Bandar Kuching MP said the excuses given by AirAsia on the flight schedule disruptions over the recent Hari Raya period, which had caused inconvenience and economic loss to travellers, were unacceptable.
“AirAsia released a statement apologising for the problem and gave the excuse that they have insufficient aircraft as many needed necessary repairs and maintenance after not being used for a long time especially during the Movement Control Order (MCO) period.
“The delay was also due to the long waiting queue for aircraft maintenance facilities for Malaysia and the region and these aircraft that are flying must be repaired before they can be flown again,” he said in a statement.
He acknowledged that while safety and security of the planes and passengers were of utmost importance, the airline company should have anticipated the surge of demand for air travel during festive seasons.
“If AirAsia could not meet the demand for flights, they should not have allowed the tickets to be sold to customers.
“In my view, it can be interpreted as a form of ‘misrepresentation’ for consumers if they purchased a certain flight on the selected date and time, but yet the flight gets rescheduled to a different time,” said Yii.
He said he had received complaints from AirAsia customers who had booked their tickets online, but within a few hours received a notification that their flight had been rescheduled even when the date of departure was two weeks away.
“If AirAsia can foresee the problem, why sell those tickets in the first place?
“Customers not only suffer a loss from that flight but many have connecting flights with other airlines which had to be changed due to changes in their AirAsia flight schedule,” he said.
In this regard, Yii urged Mavcom to hold AirAsia accountable on this issue so as to protect the rights of consumers.
”Necessary action must be taken and Mavcom must be more proactive to take action and not allow this to happen as this problem has been happening since April,” he said.
He also reiterated his call for Mavcom and the Ministry of Transport to take quick action on the matter, while also look into implementing a long-term policy to ensure that this issue does not happen again and that airlines are kept accountable towards their set schedule.
“While the government had said that there would be an investigation, such an investigation should not be an excuse to delay the necessary action.
“There is no need for lengthy investigation, or even lengthy research into the issue as the flight records and even data are readily available as evidence of constant delays and rescheduling,” he said.
AirAsia on Tuesday apologised to customers for the inconvenience caused due to the rescheduling of its flights following the sharp increase in demand during the festive season.
AirAsia Malaysia chief executive officer Riad Asmat in a statement said these were due to several factors and unavoidable incidents and the delays were beyond the airline’s expectations and control.
He said among the factors which contributed to the rescheduling of flights during the festive season included demand for domestic flights which had rose sharply and the reopening of the country’s borders since April 1.