THE Malaysian Aviation Commission (Mavcom) is giving airlines time to refund its customers, given the current Covid-19 situation.

In a statement today, Mavcom said Malaysian carriers have received an inordinately high number of passenger refund requests, which they are striving to manage with limited resources.

“As such, the airlines may take longer than usual to respond to consumers. The financial challenges currently faced by the airlines have also coincided with them needing to adopt varying forms of refunds, including cash, vouchers, credit shell or alternatively, deferment of travel,” the statement said. 

According to Mavcom, about 13.6 million flights operating in Malaysia between January and December this year were cancelled, in addition to seat reductions of 15% for domestic routes and 20% for international routes. 

Mavcom said it forecasts passenger traffic in Malaysia to decrease between 36.2% and 38.1% year-on-year in 2020 due to the Covid-19 situation. 

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) had estimated that Asia-Pacific states will see passenger demand fall by 34% to 44% this year. 

Last month, Malaysia Airlines announced it had cancelled more than 4,000 flights.

Meanwhile, AirAsia has limited the number of flights going in and out of the country, as well as domestic flights. 

Mavcom was responding to calls by the Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (Matta) earlier today, in which it expressed disappointment in aviation authorities for their total silence regarding the probability of flight passengers and travel agents having their money refunded due to movement restrictions and flight cancellations. – April 8, 2020.