KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 24 — AirAsia Group Bhd CEO Tan Sri Tony Fernandes accused Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (MAHB) of “bullying and threats” over its decision to lodge a police report against an AirAsia employee for tweeting about the poor hygiene of KLIA2.

AirAsia head of communications Mohd Aziz Laikar Ali has been summoned by the police, and is scheduled to have his statement taken on Wednesday for “hurting” the image of Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (MAHB) with his tweet.

“POLICE report !!! For saying that hygiene not kept. Mahb will never change. Bullying and threats. What we had to deal with for so many years,” Fernandes tweeted moments ago, sharing Malay Mail’s interview with Mohd Aziz.

Fernandes then responded to some Twitter users, saying that the picture was originally posted by a passenger who had complained to AirAsia, and MAHB had harmed their own image by not keeping the airport clean.

Aziz had posted a video showing a rubbish bin filled with maggots at the airport, while questioning a “fancy” statement issued by MAHB last week about its commendable performance in airport management for the month of October this year.

Aziz said he would be making an appointment with the police to have his statement recorded on Wednesday, after his leave ends.

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AirAsia Group Bhd and MAHB have been engaged in a war of words for some time, mostly over the budget carrier’s dissatisfaction with MAHB’s alleged below-par airport maintenance efforts.

AirAsia has also refused to collect MAHB’s increased passenger service charge (PSC) of RM73, over which the latter is suing the low-cost carrier and a subsidiary.

According to The Edge, MAHB issued legal letters to both AirAsia and its long-haul unit, AirAsia X Bhd (AAX), in October to demand payment of outstanding PSC for international departures since July 1.

AirAsia has accrued around RM9.4 million in unpaid PSC while AAX was hit with a lawsuit seeking RM26.72 million for similar arrears.

AirAsia Malaysia chief executive Riad Asmat, however, said the firm had been dutifully collecting RM50 in PSC per person since 2017 and remitted RM478 million in such fees to the MAHB unit operating KLIA2.

However, he said his firm stopped collecting the PSC when MAHB announced that this would be raised to RM73 at the start of 2018, as the airline disagreed that the fee should be the same at both the full-fledged KLIA and the low-cost terminal of KLIA2.