SEPANG, July 26 — AirAsia rejected a claim that it was the only airline to have received incentives amounting to RM376 million up to 2017 from Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (MAHB).

It said this in response to a statement from the airport operator containing the claim.

"We wish to point out that the three incentive schemes highlighted by MAHB, namely the Airlines Recovery Plan (ARP), Airlines Incentive Programme (I) and Airlines Incentive Programme (II), were applicable to all airlines, not just to AirAsia.

"There was no special treatment — we merely made the best use of available incentives,” said AirAsia Malaysia chief executive officer Riad Asmat in a statement today.

He said the low-cost carrier has, since starting operations in 2001, contributed at least RM3.5 billion in revenue to MAHB in the form of aeronautical charges — landing, parking, aerobridges, check-in counters, Passenger Service Charges (PSC) and Passenger Security Service Charges (PSSC) — and other charges, such as rental, utilities and more.

"Any growth AirAsia experiences directly contributes to MAHB’s coffers. For every RM1 in incentives we get, we give back at least RM9.33 to MAHB — and that is just in terms of direct contributions.

"If we look at indirect contributions from the retail, F&B and duty-free revenue that MAHB earns from our guests, that is another RM44.39 per RM1 in incentives just for Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (KLIA2) in 2017 alone,” added Riad.

He also said that airline does not discount the contributions of the airport operator to its success including the building of a low-cost carrier terminal (LCCT) and it was grateful to it.

However, since then he said that MAHB had undone much of its good work.

Riad said the airline hoped that it could work together with MAHB to realise the vision of transforming Malaysia into the "Dubai of Asia.”