In his judgment, judicial commissioner Gan Techiong directed the defendant to pay RM9,111,402.94 to Malaysia Airports (Sepang) and RM8,636,150.08 to Malaysia Airports.

“The court also orders the defendant to pay each plaintiff RM10,000 in costs,” he said, according to Bernama.

In delivering his decision, Gan said the two plaintiffs were entitled to collect charges from airlines for services provided.

Gan also dismissed the airline’s application to strike out the suit and ordered them to pay the plaintiffs RM30,000 in costs for this.

MYAirline applied in November last year to dismiss the suit, contending that Malaysia Airports should exhaust the dispute resolution mechanism of the Malaysian Aviation Commission before resorting to litigation.

The airline claimed that the suit was premature.

Malaysia Airports and its Sepang subsidiary objected to the application. They said the dispute resolution mechanism does not apply.

The suit for arrears, filed in October last year, alleges that MYAirline failed to pay six types of service charges totalling more than RM17.7 million.

These charges include passenger service and security charges, landing fees, parking fees, aerobridge fees, check-in counter fees and late payment charges.

Nasema Jalaludheen represented MYAirline, while Malaysia Airports was represented by Shannon Rajan, Eric Gomez and Katelyn Yeoh.