Mavcom focused on passenger/consumer protection

KUALA LUMPUR: In the face of criticisms against the Malaysian Aviation Commission (Mavcom), its executive chairman says the airline and airport industry regulator is more focused on passenger/consumer protection.
Tan Sri Abdullah Ahmad, a retired Air Force general, said that since its formation two years ago, Mavcom had received over 3,900 public complaints and managed to resolve up to 93% of them within 30 days.
“I’d like to emphasise here that other than to regulate the airlines and the airports, Mavcom is here looking after the ‘rakyat’ who are using the airlines as a mode of travel.
“We are not a money-making body; what we are concerned about is to take care of the welfare of consumers to make sure that they get what they want out of what they pay and that complaints they put forward are not ignored,” he told Bernama today.
Abdullah said that in the past, passengers were at the mercy of the airlines for whatever complaints they made and it was up to the airlines to entertain them or not.
But this was not the case anymore after Mavcom came into being, whereby the passengers would submit their complaints to the airlines with a copy to Mavcom.
“If the airlines concerned do not respond within seven days, we’ll move in. We’ll make sure the complaint by the consumer is entertained and resolved. And, it’s Mavcom’s KPI (Key Performance Index) to resolve it within 30 days,” he said.
Criticisms against Mavcom came mainly from budget airline AirAsia, with its Group chief executive officer Tan Sri Tony Fernandes saying the airline industry did not need such a regulatory body and that the Transport Ministry by itself was very capable of growing the local airline industry without Mavcom.
Fernandes said that dealing with Mavcom had been “nothing short of a torture” for AirAsia and he would never stop fighting for fair industry practices and demand decisions to be made for the benefit of all Malaysians.
The AirAsia CEO said this in response to a police report lodged by Mavcom on May 16 over his accusation that the aviation regulator told the airline to cancel all 120 additional flights it had requested to cater for increased demand during the recent general election.
Abdullah said most advanced countries also had an independent regulator like Mavcom to help solve “very messy problems in the aviation business”.