KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 4): The RM3 "klia2 fee" that AirAsia Group Bhd imposed on all passengers departing from the terminal in Sepang as part of its ticket price is "to cover the huge amount of extra cost klia2 has created compared with the old low-cost carrier terminal (LCCT) in Sepang", explains its group chief executive officer Tan Sri Tony Fernandes.

He was responding to a comment yesterday on his Twitter post, where he lamented the poor condition at klia2 and the increase in the international passenger service charge to RM73 from RM50.

Hitting out at Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB), Fernandes said: "The guys who built an almost RM5 billion terminal which constantly fails and added so much cost to @airasia. And you want to charge RM23 extra to our passengers for this rubbish terminal!!!!!!"

On Dec 31, 2018, Fernandes announced that AirAsia will stop collecting the RM3 klia2 fee beginning this week.

The RM3 charge, listed as “klia2 fee” in AirAsia’s ticketing system, is imposed on all passengers departing from klia2. The charge was introduced on May 9, 2014 following the relocation of all airline operations to klia2 from LCCT.

AirAsia had said that the charge was imposed due to mandatory klia2 facilities imposed by airport operator MAHB on the airline, such as aerobridges and the SITA check-in/boarding systems.