KUALA LUMPUR, April 11 — The Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) today justified a proposal to increase airline operator fees by tenfold as necessary to transform the federal agency into a proper “authority”.

DCA director-general Datuk Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said such reforms would require the department to be self-sufficient, which the increase in fees would make possible.

“DCA has been approved by the government to become the civil aviation authority of Malaysia.

“When you’re the authority, you are expected to be self-sustainable. Able to have the income to do what you want to do,” he told reporters at the DCA headquarters in Putrajaya today.

Azharuddin added that DCA spends around RM250 million a year to regulate Malaysian airspace, but only makes RM50 million in revenue, leaving a shortfall of RM200 million that requires it to seek additional funding from Putrajaya.

But he said the tenfold increase was not yet “cast in stone”, and that the DCA will meet with airline operators tomorrow for more negotiations before the final decision is announced by Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai on April 15.

“The airlines have come with (their) counter proposal, which we will look at. The final decision (will be) made this week by minister. The implementation date is also this Friday,” Azharuddin said.

He also argued that this was the first review for fees and charges the DCA has made in over 40 years, and was needed for it to satisfy the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) audit this May.

“If not, they will downgrade us. It has happened to our neighbouring countries, we don’t want that. This will affect our aviation industry,” Azharuddin said.

The proposed hike increase would see prices for airlines’ monthly air navigation flight charges (ANFC) ballooning, which forms the biggest cost item for the usage of DCA services.

The ANFC charges will rise from five sen per nautical mile now to 50 sen for lightweight aircraft. For larger flights like the A320/A330, the cost will rise from RM1-RM2.50 per nautical mile from 10-25 sen now. The minimum charges will be raised from 5 cents to 50 cents per nautical mile.

Airlines and travel operators have already criticised the quantum of the hike, saying it will cause fares to skyrocket and hurt local travel and tourism.