KUALA LUMPUR, April 28 — Budget carrier AirAsia Bhd denied making several demands which had allegedly caused the cost overruns at Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (KLIA2), the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said today.

Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) had alleged that the airline had wanted a museum and spa in the soon-to-be-opened airport.

“There were many contradictions between the statements of MAHB and AirAsia, we will investigate further,” PAC chairman Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed told reporters.

He was speaking after the parliamentary committee’s continuing probe into the problems that delayed the construction of the airport and led to construction costs to spiral.

AirAsia Group CEO Tan Sri Tony Fernandes, CEO Aireen Omar, and Executive Chairman Datuk Kamarudin Meranun met with the committee today.

The alleged demands denied by AirAsia included requesting the construction of the aerobridges, as the budget carrier said it prefers to use ramps.

Other demands denied were requests to allocate 76 plane parking bays exclusive to the airline, the implementation of the automatic baggage system, demanding KLIA2 to handle 45 million passengers per year.

Nur Jazlan said AirAsia denied requesting parking bays for the Airbus A380 jetliner, which it said it does not use as they are not cost-efficient for short-distance flights.

In addition, the airline said they had never refused to move to KLIA2, but was only concerned with the security and safety of the airport.

During the proceedings which lasted over three hours, AirAsia also presented photographs of defects on the taxi area, apron and runway that will be used by planes.

Nur Jazlan explained that MAHB will continuously follow-up with repair works, but pointed out AirAsia’s fear that the works will interfere with its operations.

He also said that AirAsia has no issues with the interior of the airport, but only with its exterior features.

In an interview with state news agency Bernama on April 6, MAHB senior general manager of operations services, Datuk Azmi Murad, had listed down AirAsia’s purported demands, which included a museum and a spa.

Azmi also said that AirAsia refused to use the passenger processing system provided by private firm Sita, insisting instead on a manual check-in system.

Despite initial misgivings over KLIA2’s safety, AirAsia said on April 15 that it will shift its operations on May 9 to the airport that is touted as the world’s largest low-cost airline terminal.

KLIA2 is set to start operations this Friday.