Its group managing director Izham Ismail said MAG filed the injunction as it could not reach a commercial agreement prior to this with AirAsia, who continued to sell the group’s inventory.

He said the hearing for the injunction, which was filed in 2022, was scheduled for August this year.

Yesterday, transport minister Loke Siew Fook said Malaysia Airlines was seeking an injunction to stop AirAsia’s Super App from offering the former’s flight tickets for sale.

His statement followed the revelation of discrepancies in prices and airline ticket classification for Kuala Lumpur-Tawau flights, which has since become a publicly debated issue.

Izham said while AirAsia has been legally recognised as an online travel agency (OTA), problems arise because the low-cost carrier buys seats from aggregators and consolidators.

“Aggregators and consolidators in this context is Kiwi.com which is not our partner, and they take the inventories from their partners.

“All airlines want to work with OTAs, aggregators and travel agents, but you must have a commercial agreement first because OTAs will make a markup and after-sale services are key issues that need to be resolved before committing.

“These issues have yet to be resolved,” he said in a press conference during MAG’s 2022 annual performance media briefing today.

Izham said 60% of their inventories were being sold directly from MAG websites, 20 to 30% through travel agents, 12% from OTAs and 5% from ticketing offices.