18 March 2021
A total of 428 complaints were filed between July 1 and December 31 last year, 45.3 per cent lower from 783 complaints lodged during the same period in 2019, according to the Malaysian Aviation Commission (Mavcom).
The majority, or 99.3 per cent complaints, involved the airlines, while 0.7 per cent were on airports, Mavcom said in its consumer report today.
The commission highlighted that 98.3 per cent of the 428 complaints were successfully resolved and closed.
The commission also received 1,403 requests for refunds in relation to Covid-19 from consumers. About 75 per cent of the total requests were due to consumers requesting for refunds and delays in refunding.
Mavcom received 401 complaints which were non-actionable by the commission. Out of which, 270 were complaints with incomplete documentation and therefore, could not be fairly evaluated.
“The commission also received 24 complaints where immediate assessment ascertained that the airline or airport concerned had fulfilled their obligations under the Malaysian Aviation Consumer Protection Code 2016 (MACPC), hence no further action was taken.
“Others were complaints that were not related to the aviation industry, complaints that were beyond the scope of the MACPC or consumers withdrawing the complaint,” it said.
Mavcom said 59 per cent of complaints received during the period resulted in the airlines reversing their initial decision and producing a resolution that was more equitable or satisfactory to the consumer than what was initially provided by the airlines.
This represented an increase of eight per cent as compared to the second half (2H) of 2019.
Segregated by airlines, AirAsia recorded the highest number of complaints of 196 during the half year period.
This is followed by Malaysia Airlines (105) and AirAsia X (57) respectively.
For the airlines, processing of refunds, flight cancellations and flight rescheduling were the top three complaint categories, making up 62.8 per cent in total.
As for the airports, complaints were mainly concerning the airport facilities and security.
The report also higlighted other initiatives undertaken by Mavcom to strengthen and amplify awareness of air travel rights such as the implementation of the Airports Quality of Service (QoS) Framework to continuously ensure high service quality levels at airports nationwide.
Twenty out of 28 service quality elements have been implemented at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) and Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (klia2) throughout the Movement Control Order (MCO) period that began on March 18 last year.
“The implementation of all 28 service quality elements at both terminals is expected to be completed in 2022. In the latest global Airport Service Quality (ASQ) survey by Airports Council International (ACI), KLIA was ranked as one of the world’s top 10 airports in the category of airports with over 40 million passengers per annum in 2020,” it said.
Mavcom executive chairman Datuk Seri Saripuddin Kasim said it was cognisant that the recovery journey of the nation’s aviation sector to its pre-pandemic status would take time.
“While there are prospects of resuming air travel in the foreseeable future, Mavcom looks forward to working collaboratively with the relevant authorities and industry players to ensure that aviation consumers’ rights continue to be protected,” he said.
Source: thestar.com.my
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