At a press conference today, Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) group CEO Raja Azmi Raja Nazuddin said even when the departure levy is added to the existing airport fees, Malaysia’s charges will still be among the lowest in the region.

“We are quite optimistic that the levy collected will be pumped back into the tourism and aviation industry to promote the country,” he said, adding that MAHB is looking forward to more accelerated growth in the industry.

In April, the Dewan Rakyat passed the Departure Levy Bill 2019, which will see a fee of RM20 imposed on any air traveller leaving Malaysia for another Asean country and RM40 on those leaving for other countries.

On meeting the challenge of fewer tourist arrivals from countries outside of Asean, Raja Azmi said MAHB had launched two promotional funds to draw tourists to the country.

The first, he said, was through the International Tourism Development Programme in collaboration with Tourism Malaysia.

That programme sees MAHB and Tourism Malaysia contributing RM10 million each to industry players to promote Malaysia to the world.

“They will be able to tap into the fund to bring in more inbound flights,” he said.

The second initiative is MAHB’s RM5 million fund to promote Langkawi.

“These are among our moves to spur more traffic to enter the country.

“We are also looking forward to some Middle Eastern and China airlines coming to our airports in the country,” he added.

He said further details on this would be announced in due course.

On Turkey’s new airport, known as the Istanbul Airport, Raja Azmi said it would not threaten the Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen International Airport, which MAHB operates.

He said the new airport was located further away and MAHB still has anchor carriers such as Pegasus and Turkish Airlines flying to the Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen International Airport.

Earlier, Raja Azmi presented the 2018 financial year results and plans for 2019 after the annual general meeting.