Former Tourism Malaysia chairman Wee Choo Keong said the two agencies are already struggling to cope with their respective duties.

“You can see that there are so many problems with the two agencies. They can’t cope. If everything is put under one roof, that would even be worse,” Wee told FMT.

CAAM oversees airline regulations to ensure that aircraft are properly maintained according to service standards, while Mavcom regulates economic and commercial matters relating to civil aviation.

Transport minister Loke Siew Fook announced two weeks ago that his ministry intends to table a proposal to merge Mavcom and CAAM into one entity at the first meeting of Parliament next year.

Public Transport Users Association president Ajit Johl agreed that Mavcom should remain independent, but said a restructuring would benefit consumers.

“Mavcom should be expanded to include land and sea transportation, as the exclusive body for consumers.

“There also needs to be more representation from independent user bodies on the Mavcom commission,” he said.

However, Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (Matta) president Nigel Wong said combining the two bodies would be a good move as it will simplify operations.

“Between the two (agencies), there are overlapping areas of responsibilities. So by combining the two into one you’re going to make that process a lot more streamlined.

“We hope that combining the two agencies would make processes more efficient, and that lines of responsibilities would be much clearer,” he said.

However, Wong said measures should be taken to ensure that the new “merged” entity offers travellers better and more effective protection.

“At the moment, Mavcom seems to be ineffective. When airlines go bust, or something like Covid happens, consumers are (typically) left high and dry.

“So we hope that by merging the two, the new entity will have more teeth when it comes to protecting consumers,” he said.