KUALA LUMPUR, May 21— Airlines which violate passengers’ rights will have to pay penalties up to RM200,000, the Malaysian Aviation Commission (Mavcom) said.
Mavcom consumer affairs director Pushpalatha Subramaniam said airlines which do not comply with certain regulations stipulated under the Malaysian Aviation Consumer Protection Code (MACPC) 2016 will be fined.
Subsequent non-compliance on matter of passengers’ rights would also land airlines in hot water; they would have to fork out 10 times the first penalty amount.
“Essentially the penalty matrix is already part of the MACPC which came into effect since July last year.
“But now, we are looking to making it operational and will introduce it by this year,” Pushpalatha told The Star’s weekend edition, Sunday Star.
Some of the examples of non-compliance include failing to indicate the final price of air fares, automatically adding on optional services to a customer’s purchase and failing to provide compensation for lost, damaged or delayed baggage.
Pushpalatha told the daily that the proposed penalties for non-compliance offences were being formulated based on previous data, and its impact on consumers.
“We have also been engaging the airlines so that they are aware about our plans. Once the penalties are approved, all airlines flying in and out of Malaysia will have to comply with the provisions,” she was quoted saying.
Pushpalatha said that Mavcom is also developing a regulatory framework to measure service levels, based on users’ feedback, as a bid to improve services at airports.
In July last year, Mavcom, an independent body set up under the Malaysian Aviation Commission Act 2015, announced that the then newly-gazetted MACPC 2016 has come into effect.
