Malaysian Aviation Commission director of consumer affairs Pushpalatha Subramaniam. — SYAMIMI ZAINAL/ THE STAR
KUALA LUMPUR: The enhanced Malaysian Aviation Consumer Protection Code 2016 (MACPC) makes Malaysia one of the strongest in terms of consumer protection in Asean, but there are worries that airlines will pass on the extra cost of compliance to consumers.
However, Malaysian Aviation Commission or Mavcom director of consumer and public affairs Pushpalatha Subramaniam believes there should not be additional cost to consumers.
“I don’t think so. Firstly, we need to understand what’s the percentage of leakages that happens from the overall perspective of your revenue.
“Is it less than 1%, 2%, 5%? We don’t think so.
“So, I don’t think there’s going to be additional costs.
“Of course, there’ll be additional costs if there’s more flight disruptions that come in. So, this means that they need to manage their operations,” she told the media at a briefing to elaborate on the amendments to the MACPC here yesterday.
Transport Minister Anthony Loke announced on Aug 28 that airlines are required to offer passengers the option of a full refund for flight delays of five hours or more, effective Sept 2.
When asked what the main grouse airlines had with the enhanced protection, Pushpalatha said: “The main grouse is the implementation of a regulation that’s going to take effect in January 2025, because they will now have to really tighten and can’t cancel unnecessarily.
“So probably that’s the biggest grouse they have that they may not be able to comply with. That’s why we’re giving them the heads-up.
“While we kind of implemented this from September, our discussions were from way before. They have been given a heads-up probably a couple of months ago.”
One of the key enhancements requires airlines to communicate to consumers at least two weeks prior to the actual departure if there is any change in the scheduled time of departure, except in cases of extraordinary circumstances or technical reasons.
This provision will take effect in January next year to allow airlines enough time for system updates.
Another complaint raised was related to the other parties taking responsibility for any delays.
“There are also some grievances that have come in the media and we need to factor in things such as the delays caused by other parties in the airports, such as the airport (operator) or the ground handlers and so forth.
“While we have the consumer protection code for airlines, we do also have a quality of service regime for airports,” Pushpalatha explained.
AirAsia’s parent Capital A Bhd
’s chief executive officer, Tan Sri Tony Fernandes, voiced out that the new refund rule should apply to all stakeholders, including airport operators and not just airlines.
Meanwhile, when asked on the airline carbon fee, Pushpalatha said, “Malaysia does not impose a mandatory airline carbon fee, but local airlines are given the green light to collect the fee should they want to.”
She further added that Mavcom does not set a price ceiling for the carbon fee for airlines.
