Tony hopes rebranded KLIA Terminal 1 & 2 offer lower airport tax

10 February 2023

Capital A Bhd chief executive officer Tan Sri Tony Fernandes is looking forward to lower airport tax or passenger service charge (PSC) at the newly-rebranded Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) Terminal 2.

On KLIA’s rebranding to KLIA Terminal 1 and KLIA Terminal 2, Fernandes said the name change did not make any difference to AirAsia. NSTP/ASWADI ALIAS.

He said the company’s subsidiary AirAsia had been campaigning over 20 years to ensure the government imposes lower airport tax to passengers so that more people could travel.

“I hope we can persuade the government and Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB)…I’m optimistic that we’ll have a differentiated tax system in the future. I’m confident we have the right pieces of puzzle to start discussing things that I dreamed about,” he said at a press conference after the launch of AirAsia’s five million free seats.

On KLIA’s rebranding to KLIA Terminal 1 and KLIA Terminal 2, Fernandes said the name change did not make any difference to AirAsia.

“What makes a difference to us is the airport tax and with the Terminal 1 and Terminal 2, I hope there’s going to be a difference since it’s different airport,” he added.

On Thursday, MAHB said that it had obtained the government’s nod to rebrand KLIA as Terminal 1 and klia2 as Terminal 2.

The current PSC at KLIA, klia2 and other airports nationwide is RM11 for domestic destinations while international (Asean) and international (non-Asean) are RM35 and RM50 respectively.

Meanwhile, AirAsia launched its five million free seats campaign to various local and international destinations starting today.

Travellers can fly to Penang, Langkawi, Kuching, Sibu, Kota Kinabalu and more from RM23 and to international destinations including Bali, Krabi, Jakarta, Macao, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Phu Quoc, Ho Chi Minh City, Singapore and more from RM60.

AirAsia X Bhd was also part of the campaign as it offers flights to Gold Coast, Busan, Taipei, Tokyo and more with all-in fares from RM329 one-way on economy.

Flights are available for booking starting today until Feb 19 2023 with the travel period between March 1 2023 and Dec 10 2023.

The free seats excluse airport tax, Malaysia Aviation Commission (Mavcom) fee, fuel surcharge and other applicable fees.

The event announcement was attended by the Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing.

Tiong said the tourism sector was a major economic driver for Malaysia, accounting for nearly 15 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) while air connectivity is the backbone of the tourism sector.

“As we target to receive 15.6 million tourist arrivals with RM47.6 billion in tourism receipts for 2023, we would like to commend AirAsia for taking the initiative to outline its plan to revitalise the tourism industry and play an integral part to achieve this outcome,” he added.

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