Friday 29 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (May 15): The Malaysian Aviation Commission (Mavcom) has lodged a police report, following claims made by AirAsia Group Bhd group chief executive officer Tan Sri Tony Fernandes in a video that went viral on social media last Sunday. 

In a statement today, Mavcom said it categorically refutes Fernandes's accusation that it told the low cost carrier to cancel all 120 additional flights applied during the 14th Malaysian General Election (GE14) period, calling the accusations “baseless and malicious”. 

“To elaborate, all extra flight applications received by the commission are done via the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia (CAAM).

“AirAsia on April 13, 2018 and April 18, 2018, requested for a total of 54 additional flights (27 return journeys with a maximum volume of 13,660 passengers) to be operated during the GE14 period, which Mavcom approved on April 17, 2018 and April 18, 2018 respectively. 

“At 3.20pm on April 20, which was a Friday, the airline requested for an additional 86 flights (43 return journeys with a maximum volume of 15,480 passengers) to be in operation during the GE14 period. 

“However, on April 23 2018 (Monday) at 8.17am, the commission received a revised flight application for 66 additional flights (33 return journeys with maximum volume of 12,274 passengers) for the period of May 6 to May 13, 2018, from AirAsia, superseding its earlier applications. 

“In its e-mail submission, AirAsia specified that its previous applications should be disregarded. The commission took note of this revision and subsequently approved this revised request on the same day.   

“Inclusive of AirAsia, the Commission approved additional flight application of the various Malaysian-based airlines as of 24 April 2018, totalling 166 flights (83 return journeys with a maximum volume of 26,434 passengers),” Mavcom said.

Mavcom further went on to say that its executive chairman Gen. Tan Sri Abdullah Ahmad RMAF (Retd) had communicated with all airlines on April 19 and April 20, 2018 to seek clarification if there was sufficient demand for the requested additional flights. 

“The commission further reiterates that it had not issued any directive to any airline to reduce or cancel any flights. Only AirAsia proceeded to reduce its application for extra flights, while Firefly, Malaysia Airlines and Malindo Air maintained their requests,” the statement added.

In light of the stated facts of the matter, Mavcom said that it views Fernandes’ accusation that the commission had informed AirAsia to cancel “120 extra flights which would have carried 26,000 people, on top of our normal flights” as baseless and malicious.

Mavcom said that it has been mandated under the Malaysian Aviation Commission Act 2015 [Act 771] to act as an independent regulator for economic and commercial matters related to civil aviation in Malaysia, with its goal to promote a commercially viable, consumer-oriented and resilient civil aviation industry, which supports the nation’s economic growth. 

“On no occasion did the commission exceed its stated powers under Act 771, nor fail to fulfil its goal in this matter.

“In fact, the commission promptly fulfilled its duties in the shortest possible timeframe to facilitate the airlines’ activities for the GE14 that was held on May 9, 2018,” Mavcom added. 

To Fernandes' statement that “within 24hours, we were summoned by the Malaysian Aviation Commission”, Mavcom categorically refuted any AirAsia staff had been summoned to appear before the commission, regarding this matter, at all material times (between April 17,2018 to May 13, 2018). 

Fernandes had 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 follows 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 that forbids it from campaigning for political parties.

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

He went on to say that he had put on 120 extra flights and had reduced its fares for domestic flights during the election period, which were offered 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 time of writing, and was shared 32,148 times.

At midday break today, AirAsia rose 0.86% or 3 sen to RM3.53, with 12.69 million shares done.

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