KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 30): Airasia Group Bhd says it is set to implement tomorrow (Oct 1), the new, lowered passenger service charge or PSC for passengers flying out to destinations beyond Asean from all other airports in Malaysia, except the Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

Its announcement today came after Transport Minister said in end-August that the Cabinet had agreed to cut the PSC from RM73 to RM50 for this group of passengers, which will also apply for passengers flying out from klia2.

It was reported that the lower charge is to mitigate the imposition of the departure fee — which ranges from RM8 to RM150 per passenger, depending on the destination and seat class — on passengers leaving Malaysia, and to encourage the growth of the tourism sector.

“We fully respect the Cabinet’s decision and as per the minister’s announcement, we will proceed with charging the reduced PSC from Oct 1, 2019. As the airports belong to the covernment, the Cabinet certainly has every power to implement changes to the PSC,” said AirAsia Group president (airlines) Bo Lingam.

“The fact that the Cabinet has chosen to reduce the applicable PSC to RM50, demonstrates that the PSC rates set by the Malaysian Aviation Commission (Mavcom) are maximum rates, rather than fixed rates, consistent with statements made by Mavcom. For this reason, we believe there is no need for further gazetting of the lower PSC rate for it to become effective on Oct 1, 2019,” he added in a statement.

“We would like to thank the government and all Malaysians for supporting our cause towards a fair PSC and making air travel affordable for everyone. This will hugely benefit not only air travellers but also the tourism industry and economy as a whole,” Bo further added.

As a special thanks to guests and supporters, AirAsia said it will be having a 23-hour “Shared Prosperity” promotion on Oct 1, 2019, offering a 23% discount on all seats to destinations beyond Asean, including Tianjin, Melbourne, Seoul, Jaipur, Tokyo and Taipei, for immediate travel through to Feb 9, 2020.

The promotion, which will be available on airasia.com and the AirAsia mobile app, includes hotel bookings. There are also special discounts on merchandise and duty-free items on ourshop.com.

At 4pm,  AirAsia Group shares were traded at RM1.77, fell one sen or 0.56%, bringing it a market capitalisation of RM5.92 billion. It saw some 5.92 million shares exchanging hands.