KUALA LUMPUR: AirAsia Bhd CEO Aireen Omar says the company will make further appeals against the passenger service charge hike, and calls the same rate for klia2 and KLIA as unfair. Let tourist numbers return to previous highs before talking about increasing passenger service charges (PSC), says AirAsia chief.
AirAsia Bhd CEO Aireen Omar said this today, urging the Government to reconsider its proposal to increase PSC at all airports nationwide, The New Straits Times (NST) reported.
She cited statistics from Tourism Malaysia and the Asean Secretariat, which showed that tourist numbers had dropped last year, compared with previous years.
Tourism Malaysia statistics show that 25.7 million tourists entered the country last year, compared with the 27.44 million who came here in 2014. The Asean Secretariat report supported this data and also stated that Malaysia was the only country in Asean to have experienced a drop in international visitor arrivals last year.
Bearing such numbers in mind, Aireen called for aviation and tourism industry players, as well as local authorities, to stabilise the tourist arrival numbers first, before increasing the PSC.
“I think if you want to win tourism back, it is important to do it (increase PSC) gradually. Of course, ideally we prefer if there isn’t any increase at all,” she told NST. It was reported last month that the Cabinet had okayed the increase in PSC, which is commonly referred to as airport tax.
The Transport Ministry has confirmed the new rates would be implemented from January 1 next year but the agency responsible, the Malaysian Aviation Commission (Mavcom) is yet make an official announcement on the matter.
