KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 3): AirAsia Bhd said it does not owe arrears to Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB), dismissing any notion that it is one of the airlines that have defaulted on their payments to the airport operator.
Its group chief executive officer (CEO) Tan Sri Tony Fernandes said the low-cost carrier has no difficulties paying its arrears to the airport operator.
"Of course, as a company, you owe (charges) every month. You don't pay on the dot," he told reporters after launching the airline's Kuala Lumpur-Goa flight today.
"But (AirAsia CEO) Aireen (Omar) is on top of the issue. AirAsia has no problems with any payment," Fernandes added.
On Aug 28, 2015, MAHB had issued a statement saying it was considering taking stern action, including issuing letters of demand and seeking legal recourse, to recover overdue payments from airlines, but did not name them. It added that the arrears were mostly related to collection of passenger service charges (PSC).
The PSC is a government-regulated charge that the airlines collect in advance from passengers, by including the same in the ticket price paid by passengers. The PSC is then handed over to MAHB, which will be used for the maintenance and enhancement of the airport facilities and services.
For the second quarter ended June 30, 2015 (2QFY15), MAHB reported that its trade receivables, which include billed charges for services at its airports, rose 48.96% to RM903 million, from RM606.4 million a year ago.
MAHB’s move comes on the heels of a heated exchange between its main customer AirAsia Bhd at klia2 over structural problems at the RM4 billion low cost terminal, which includes a sinking tarmac.
AirAsia had earlier served MAHB with a letter of demand, seeking RM409 million in loss and damages incurred, while operating out of the RM4 billion klia2 and the old low-cost carrier terminal (LCCT) in Sepang.
MAHB had responded to the airline's claims, saying they were not only “wholly unjustified and unsupported by any particulars”, but also "misleading and tainted with factual inaccuracies".
On the letter of demand by AirAsia, Fernandes said it will sit with MAHB to discuss the matter this month.
He said a date has been fixed for the meeting, but declined to disclose it.
"The transport minister (Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai) has played a good part in bringing us together and I have always maintained that we should work together and find common areas of interest rather than keep having disagreements of how LCCTs should be run," said Fernandes.
AirAsia (fundamental: 0.2; valuation: 1.8)'s shares closed down 0.52% or 0.5 sen at 95 sen today, bringing a market capitalisation of RM2.64 billion. MAHB (fundamental: 0.8; valuation: 2)'s share price meanwhile, was 3.89% or 17 sen higher to settle at RM4.54, with a market capitalization of RM7.45 billion.
(Note: The Edge Research's fundamental score reflects a company’s profitability and balance sheet strength, calculated based on historical numbers. The valuation score determines if a stock is attractively valued or not, also based on historical numbers. A score of 3 suggests strong fundamentals and attractive valuations. A score of 3 suggests strong fundamentals and attractive valuations.)