‘klia2 not a low-cost airport terminal’
> MAHB responds to Pua’s criticism of equalising PSC
PETALING JAYA: The klia2 is not a lowcost airport terminal but a second permanent terminal for KLIA that will accommodate future growth, Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (MAHB) said.
It said klia2 must serve the needs of the country’s current and future civil aviation industry and has no bearing on the passenger service charge (PSC) rates.
“In January, the government had decided to equalise PSC for the two terminals in KLIA and all other airports in Malaysia.
“This was done after an extensive study conducted by the Malaysian Aviation Commission (Mavcom) on aviation charges across the industry, and Mavcom has stated its position that the equalisation will facilitate an environment of fairer competition between airlines operating at these two terminals.
“It will ensure Malaysia is aligned to international guidelines, including with the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s principle of non-discriminatory pricing at airports,” MAHB said in a statement in response to Tony Pua’s criticism over the equalisation of the PSC at klia2.
The Petaling Jaya Utara MP claimed that the PSC was to enable MAHB to tackle its cost overruns.
He said klia2 was supposed to be a lowcost terminal and panned Mavcom’s explanation that the PSC between klia2 and KLIA was equalised as the two airports provided a similar quality of service.
MAHB pointed out that it had given many clarifications on klia2’s development cost of RM4 billion.
“Numerous explanations had been given to Tony Pua and the other members of the Public Accounts Committee that klia2 development had undergone a significant scope increase due to changing requirements by key stakeholders, including government agencies and AirAsia.
“Based on AirAsia’s growth projection, klia2 was built for a capacity of 45 million passengers, an increase of 50% over the original planned capacity of 30 million at the cost of RM2 billion.
“Current traffic performance at klia2 has validated the decision as it had registered passenger traffic movements of 27 million in 2016, barely three years after it begun operations in May 2014,” it said.
MAHB said since January, the PSC rates have been equalised for all airports at RM73 for non-Asean, RM35 for Asean and RM11 for domestic, with the exception of nonAsean PSC rates specifically at klia2 that remained at RM50.
It said the new tier for Asean PSC rate saw a reduction of 46% from RM65 to RM35 that benefited about 18 million passengers.
Besides, 70% of the non-Asean international passengers at KLIA and klia2 terminals are foreigners and unaffected by the PSC rates.
“This last phase of equalisation is for non-Asean international PSC at klia2 from RM50 to RM73, involving about 4.5 million departing passengers a year of which about 70% or 3 million are foreigners,” it said.
In the case of domestic PSC – the same rate is applied in Lahad Datu Airport and in KLIA regardless of differences in available facilities.
Despite the standardisation, the rates remain one of the cheapest in the region and the world, it said.