“I’d like to emphasise here that other than to regulate the airlines and the airports, Mavcom looks after the rakyat who use airlines as a mode of travel,” its executive chairman Abdullah Ahmad told Bernama.
“We are not a money-making body. What we are concerned about is taking care of the welfare of consumers to make sure that they get what they want from what they pay and that complaints they put forward are not ignored.”
Abdullah, a retired Air Force general, said since its formation two years ago, Mavcom had received over 3,900 public complaints and resolved up to 93% of them within 30 days.
In the past, he said, passengers were at the mercy of the airlines because it was up to the airlines whether or not to entertain their complaints.
With Mavcom, he said, this was no longer the case as a copy of passengers’ complaints went to the regulator.
“If the airlines concerned do not respond within seven days, we’ll move in. We’ll make sure the complaint by the consumer is entertained and resolved. And it’s Mavcom’s KPI (key performance index) to resolve it within 30 days,” he said.
Criticism against Mavcom has come mainly from AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernandes, who recently said the airline industry did not need such a regulatory body.
He said the transport ministry alone was very capable of growing the local airline industry without Mavcom.
Fernandes also said dealing with Mavcom had been “nothing short of torture” for AirAsia and that he would never stop fighting for fair industry practices.
The AirAsia CEO said this in response to a police report lodged by Mavcom on May 16 over his accusation that the aviation regulator told the airline to cancel all 120 additional flights it had requested to cater for the increased demand during the recent general election.
But AirAsia maintained that it had the evidence and facts to back up the accusations and would divulge them at the right time.
A former member of the steering committee to set up Mavcom, Abdul Gani Patail, defended Mavcom, saying because the civil aviation industry was evolving at an accelerated pace, there was an urgent need to ensure that consumer protection and rights of passengers were made a priority.
However, the Malaysian Public Transport Users Association has criticised the role of Mavcom and questioned the RM1 levy it imposes on travellers.
To this, Abdul Gani, who is a former attorney-general, argued that the RM1 levy imposed on passengers when departing from a Malaysian airport, except for passengers using the Rural Air Services in remote parts of Sabah and Sarawak, was a “sound investment for peace of mind”.
Abdullah said the complaints received were categorised mainly into three types: refund, baggage claims and delayed flights.
Baggage claims are over luggage lost, delayed or damaged and what passengers are entitled to for flights delayed for more than six hours, and compensation if delayed by more than 13 hours.
“So far, through our survey, only 65% of the public are aware of this consumer protection. Mavcom is continuously making more advertisements and educational approaches to the public to increase awareness of this consumer protection,” he said.
Abdullah said most advanced countries also had an independent regulator like Mavcom to help solve “very messy problems in the aviation business”.