This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on May 16, 2018

KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Aviation Commission (Mavcom), accused of forcing AirAsia Group Bhd to cancel 120 extra flights during the recent 14th general election (GE14), has lodged a police report against the budget airline’s group chief executive officer (CEO) Tan Sri Tony Fernandes.

The aviation regulator said it views Fernandes’ accusation as “baseless and malicious”.

“The commission has never issued any directive to AirAsia or any other airline to reduce or cancel any flights where regulatory requirements are met.

“The commission had in fact approved all 66 additional flights applied for by AirAsia on April 23,” said Mavcom in a statement yesterday. “Mavcom views Tan Sri Tony Fernandes’ claims as serious accusations and has lodged a police report,” it added.

On Fernandes’ statement that “within 24 hours, we were summoned by the Malaysian Aviation Commission”, Mavcom said it categorically refutes that any AirAsia staff were summoned at all material times between April 17 and May 13 to appear before the commission regarding this matter.  

“All extra flight applications received by the commission are done via the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia,” it said.

In an immediate response, AirAsia said it “strongly refutes” the police report lodged by Mavcom against its chief.

“We would like to emphasise the video released by Tan Sri Tony Fernandes on May 13 is fully supported by evidences and facts including direct communication between AirAsia Malaysia CEO Riad Asmat and Mavcom executive chairman (Tan Sri Abdullah Ahmad).

“We will divulge the evidences and facts to the appropriate authorities at the right time,” it added.

Fernandes, on Sunday, posted a video on his Facebook page, apologising for buckling under intense pressure from Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s administration by showing he supported the Barisan Nasional (BN) government by flying the former prime minister on a plane with a BN theme.

This came after Fernandes faced severe backlash from netizens for his actions and for breaking the standard operating procedure as the airline has a written clause in its staff contract forbidding them from campaigning for political parties.

In the video, Fernandes said he was under intense pressure as he had refused to sack AirAsia X Bhd chairman Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz, who had strongly criticised the BN government.

He went on to say he had made 120 extra flights available and reduced its fares for domestic flights during the election period, at RM99 for flights in Peninsular Malaysia and RM129 for flights to Sabah and Sarawak.

“Within 24 hours, we were summoned by Mavcom and told to cancel all those flights. That put us again on tremendous pressure. We had both Rafidah where we didn’t buckle and we have put in these extra flights to carry the rakyat home, at low fares,” Fernandes said in the video. The video had 1.6 million views at press time, and was shared 32,164 times.