The Kuala Lumpur High Court has ordered AirAsia Group to pay MYR40.7 million ringgits (USD9.9 million) in overdue passenger charges to Malaysia Airports, the operator of Kuala Lumpur International airport said in a stock market filing on July 18, 2019.
Malaysia Airports Holding Berhad (MAHB) said that the court sided with the airport operator in all three civil suits filed against AirAsia and AirAsia X.
The judges also slapped an additional MYR792,381 ringgit (USD192,500) late payment penalty on AirAsia.
"AirAsia strongly believes that the court has erred and we will appeal this decision. AirAsia will apply for a stay of execution and challenge MASSB's and its parent Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad's actions - which we maintain are a burden on all travelling Malaysians - until we exhaust all avenues available under the law," AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernandes and co-founder Datuk Kamarudin Meranun said in a press release.
AirAsia maintains that the enforcement of the judgement would harm passengers. It underlined that it did not, as such, withhold any payments from MAHB. Rather, it simply avoided collecting them from its passengers.
The two Malaysian LCCs have been protesting the increase in passenger fees introduced at the low-cost KLIA2 terminal since July 2018. The duties have been levelled at both terminals and amount to MYR73 ringgit (USD17.7) per departing passenger on non-ASEAN routes. The previous passenger fee at KLIA2 was MYR50 ringgit (USD12.2). AirAsia Group has long argued that given KLIA2's inferior level of service, passenger fees should be lower than at the full-service KLIA1 terminal.
AirAsia is also trying to force the Malaysian Aviation Commission (Mavcom) to intervene in the dispute. It, however, has so far declined to mediate between the airline and the airport operator.
Separately, AirAsia said that its cargo and logistics platform Teleport had partnered venture capital firm Gobi Partners in investing USD10.6 million in regional e-commerce and parcel delivery player, EasyParcel.
