AirAsia says it has ‘no choice’ but to take stern action against Malaysia Airports

In this file picture AirAsia Airbus A320 airplanes are parked on the tarmac at the low-cost carrier Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (KLIA2) in Sepang. - AFP

PETALING JAYA: AirAsia Bhd has no choice but to take stern action against Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) following the airport operator’s inefficiency which has caused continuous problems for the low-cost airline.

Chief executive officer Aireen Omar said the prolonged problems at the KLIA2 had wasted AirAsia’s time and expenses.

She said the company had been raising the issues to MAHB for over a year and and updated the authorities regularly concerning the safety operations at KLIA2 even before it was opened.

However, she said, these had never been permanently resolved and constantly disrupted its operations at the airport, causing frustration to the single largest airline operator.

“It has affected our passengers on the delays, including our pilots, engineers and staff on other matters as well.

“It cannot continue like this where we have to accommodate its (MAHB) deficiency,” Aireen told reporters after announcing the partnership with Fleet International Holdings Sdn Bhd here yesterday.

Aireen said to date, the company had not received any news on its legal claims for losses amounting RM409.44mil from MAHB.

“Let us see how it is because this is not something we just thought of overnight.

“We are serious and have been working on this for over a year or so as soon as we're asked to move to KLIA2”, she said.

Aireen said as an airport operator, MAHB should have been more supportive and look at airlines as their business partners because currently most of its aircraft orders that came in almost every month, had to be deployed to Thailand and Indonesia.

“That's a shame because we could have build more connectivity in the country.

“But no, Thailand gets it more now, the Thai airport operator is more accomodating and are able to facilitate the low cost carriers needs than over here in Malaysia," she said.

Fleet International is a one-stop company that specialises in badminton products, including research and development, manufacturing, marketing and servicing.

It has agreed to a RM300,000 sponsorship for AirAsia Badminton Academy a year for the next three years. — Bernama