THE Malaysian Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) is looking at doubling air navigation facility charges instead of a massive 10-fold hike proposed a week ago.
According to reports, the drastic decrease is a result of Malaysia’s transport minister Liow Tiong Lai’s belief that the much smaller hike will not then cause a rise in consumer airfare prices, a contentious point in the ongoing saga.
This comes in the wake of seven of Malaysia’s major carriers banding together in an effort to form a new airline association, the Association of Malaysian Air Carriers (AMAC), to leverage their bargaining power against the DCA.
The proposed fee increase is the first review by the DCA in 40 years, and is meant to help meet its increasing operating costs while at the same time have a reasonable return on assets in order improve and to serve the industry better.
Liow had also earlier said that the DCA was upgrading itself into a Civil Aviation Authority, and the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) will be conducting an audit on the DCA next month to vet the department.
