The new fees imposed, would impact the entire aviation industry as well as the consumers and not just Malaysia Airlines.

When asked whether the fee increase would drastically affect the aviation industry, especially air fares, Azharuddin said whether the airlines would absorb the increased cost themselves or transfer the cost to the consumers was something out of DCA’s control.

Transport minister Liow Tiong Lai said the government would make a decision on DCA’s new fee proposal this week, and if approved, the new fee would go into effect from April 15.

When contacted by Sin Chew Daily, a MAS spokesperson said such a dramatic increase implemented almost immediately had been unprecedented in the aviation industry, and would potentially keep foreign airlines away from the Malaysian air space, adding that the proposed measure would not augur well for the country’s tourist industry.

The airline said while it approved of increased cost to control the use of our air space and other related resources and infrastructure development, the drastic increase had indeed taken the airline off guard.

The MAS spokesperson nevertheless said the airline welcomed the authorities’ move to have a dialogue with aviation operators to explain the basis of fee increase.

However, he did not elaborate whether MAS’ air fares would be increased accordingly.

During the media briefing, DCA said other than the air navigation flight charges (ANFC), there were some 50 different flight operation fees that would be increased, of which at least 20 were newly introduced fees.

Azharuddin said the DCA’s expenditure was about US$65 million a year but its revenue was only US$13 million, and as such it needed the government’s funding for continued operation.

He said the government had approved to convert the DCA from the civil aviation department to civil aviation authority, and the transformed body would need to generate its own income to sustain its operation.

“The new fee scheme is still a proposal and the final decision will rest on the transport ministry.”

He said the last time DCA reviewed the ANFC was way back in the 1970s while the last revision of other fees was in 1996. As such, Azharuddin said it was necessary for the DCA to increase the fees so that its operation could be sustained.

Azharuddin said the DCA had approached the aviation operators several times, the last being on April 1 this year.

He also said the DCA and the Transport Ministry would meet up with aviation operators again tomorrow to finalise the fee increases.

On the 10-fold increase of ANFC, Azharuddin explained that the fee would be increased from US$ 0.0125 to US$0.077 per nautical mile to US$ 0.12 to US$ 0.77 for the two flight information regions, namely the Kuala Lumpur FIR covering West Malaysia and the Andaman Sea, and the Kota Kinabalu FIR covering the states of Sabah and Sarawak and parts of South China Sea, adding that the margin of fee increase was an outcome of discussions between the DCA and economic experts.

He also said the proposed new ANFC was still lower than those charged by New Zealand, Azerbaijan, Thailand, Vietnam and Hong Kong.

For instance, an Airbus A320 flying 400 nautical miles will have to pay US$206 under the new fee scheme, cheaper than the US$221, US$262 and US$500 charged by Hong Kong, Vietnam and Thailand respectively. Only Indonesia charges less at US$90.

Azharuddin said there were some 500 landings and the same number of takeoffs from Kuala Lumpur International Airport alone every day, and that the DCA could not charge the same amount to effectively control a much denser air space compared to decades ago.

Besides, the DCA will also invest more to improve the existing infrastructure, including the development of new air traffic control centers in Kuala Lumpur and Kota Kinabalu and replacing outdated radar and telecommunication systems.

“We can only safely and effectively control our air space if we have the money.”