AirAsia imposes RM3 ‘KLIA2 fee’
Large crowd: Customers queuing at counters at the newly opened KLIA2.
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SEPANG: AirAsia started charging its passengers a RM3 fee with each ticket booked since yesterday – a levy it calls a “KLIA2 fee”.
Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) was quick to distance itself from the move, issuing a statement to deny that it had anything to do with it.
“There is no such charge as the ‘KLIA2 fee’ by the airport.
“The airport charges are standard and applicable to all airlines at our airports,” it said in response to queries from the public over the fee.
“We have highlighted to AirAsia to explain this additional RM3 fee to the public.”
AirAsia Bhd CEO Aireen Omar admitted in an interview last night that the KLIA2 fee was a charge by AirAsia for all its customers, regardless of whether the flight was domestic or international.
“We did our own calculations based on the charges imposed on us by Malaysia Airports.
“So, the RM3 fee is for the aerobridge charge, the check-in system and other new things implemented in KLIA2 that weren’t available at LCCT,” said Aireen.
AirAsiaX CEO Azran Osman-Rani emphasised that those were mandatory charges MAHB imposed on AirAsia and it did not have a choice but to pass it on to customers.
“In the interest of moving here quickly, we had no choice but to accept the use of the check-in system that was given to us by the authorities,” he explained.
Signages around KLIA2 put up by MAHB state that all airlines pay RM0.25 per passenger for the aerobridge use, RM6 per domestic departing passenger as airport tax and RM3 per domestic passenger as aircraft landing or takeoff fee.
