AIRASIA will offer special fare deals in October to celebrate the government’s decision to reduce the passenger service charge (PSC) for passengers to destinations beyond Asean from RM73 to RM50.

AirAsia chief executive Tony Fernandes said the deal will be called ‘Anthony Loke’s Special’ in honour of the transport minister.

“Today is a big day for AirAsia. In October, new PSC rates will kick in, and we will be offering special deals with cheaper fares.

“We call this special offer ‘Anthony Loke’s Special’,” he said today during AirAsia’s agreement signing with Airbus for the order of an additional 12 A330neo and 30 A321XLR aircraft.

Earlier today, Loke announced that the cabinet has decided to reduce the PSC for passengers using airports other than the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) to destinations beyond Asean from RM73 to RM50 effective October 1.

Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) had in July last year raised the PSC for klia2 passengers travelling to non-Asean destinations to RM73 from RM50, which is the same rate as the full-service terminal KLIA.

Loke said the cabinet’s decision to reduce PSC was to balance with the departure levy, as well as to encourage the growth of the tourism sector.

The PSCs for Asean destinations remain at RM35 and RM11 for domestic destinations.

In another development, Fernandes said AirAsia would not be taking any action against MAHB for the network failure that crippled operations in KLIA and klia2 for four days recently.

He said the problems faced by MAHB were quite common, adding that he would not want to take any advantage over the matter by taking legal actions against MAHB.

“We will not take any specific action against MAHB for what had happened last week. We don’t want to take any advantage of the situation.

“Each organisation will have its own problems. We also have our own issues,” he said.

He added that AirAsia had previously sued MAHB for RM400 million over disruption of services in klia2.

The network failure beginning August 21 had resulted in a systems outage for about four days at both terminals, resulting in chaos in operations, flight delays and frustrated passengers.

It was reported that police would be calling in four people for questioning over the network failure.

Yesterday, AirAsia deputy group CEO of technology and digital Aireen Omar said the KLIA operating system needs to be overhauled or replaced.

According to Aireen, the “old and very expensive” system should be upgraded immediately to enable airlines to provide better services to their passengers and the country as a whole.

She said the airline had previously recommended its system, which she said was less costly and “far more competent that those current in all airports in Malaysia”, but was rejected by the airport operator, MAHB. – August 30, 2019.