I guess uncle Tony is losing his magical powers...over his kingdom. Dictator of airlines of malaysia. His generals are stirring for a coup d'état.
Bersama 5th 2011
The fued between AirAsia Bhd and Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) took a turn for the worse when the low-cost carrier today refuted claims by the airport operator that AirAsia was the main reason for the cost of the new low-cost terminal, or KLIA2, to increase substantially.
In a statement here Monday, the low-cost carrier also said it did not ask for a bigger KLIA2.
AirAsia has called for a press conference tomorrow at its headquarters in Sepang to refute MAHB's claims of asking for a bigger KLIA2.
The budget carrier also provided copies of two official letters sent by AirAsia to MAHB and vice versa to prove that it should not be blamed for the price tag of KLIA2 to almost double.
AirAsia, MAHB's biggest customer, said its chairman, Datuk Abdul Aziz Abu Bakar, had in a letter on November 2009 to MAHB managing director Tan Sri Bashir Ahmad Abdul Majid, cautioned that the location of KLIA2 at KLIA West was not suitable and would cause construction costs to soar.
"The site will definitely be more expensive than the planned budget of RM2 billion," AirAsia said, adding it had also estimated for MAHB that the construction cost will increase to RM3.6-RM3.9 billion.
In a separate letter dated Aug 9 this year, Bashir had written to AirAsia X chairman, Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz, claiming that the proposed KLIA2 would be sufficient to handle 30 million passengers per annum.
"This figure has never been officially changed by AirAsia or MAHB since Aug 9, 2011," AirAsia said, in refuting claims made by MAHB in an article entitled "Why KLIA2 has to be bigger" posted on its website.
According to the article, MAHB claimed that AirAsia had been the one to estimate that passenger traffic at the new terminal would reach 28.7 million by 2015, 45.3 million by 2020 and 60.3 million by 2025.
AirAsia chief executive officer, Tan Sri Tony Fernandes, had also dismissed MAHB's justifications for doubling the cost of KLIA2 from its original RM2 billion estimate in 2009 to RM3.9 billion currently.
AirAsia had mentioned in a letter that the airline should not be held accountable for cost over-runs arising from the incorporation of these needs.
The airline also refuted MAHB's claim that it had asked for a fully-automated baggage handling system (BHS), which is believed to have caused delays in construction, saying it had only asked for a semi-automated BHS.
"The MAHB board had unilaterally decided on a fully-automated BHS to accommodate 45-60 million passengers, which was again not agreed to by AirAsia," it said.
AirAsia said its request for a 3,000-metre runway had been based on its original requirement to MAHB to cater to the wide-bodied Airbus A330 aircraft, which were operated by Air Asia X.
Later, the airline said, MAHB has since shortened the runway length to 2,750 metres, which can only cater to the A320 aircraft, without consulting AirAsia.
"As such, this should not be considered as an additional request/requirement from AirAsia as the original plan has always been for a 3,000-metre runway.
"Therefore, no additional cost should be incurred," it said.
Bersama 6th 2011
In the latest twist to the feud between AirAsia Bhd and Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB), the budget carrier today expressed its hope to work as a family and for the airport operator to give fair consideration to the airline's requirement in the new low cost terminal (KLIA2).
AirAsia Chief Operating Officer Bo Lingam said the airline would be the biggest company to utilise the new airport but some of its proposals and basic requirements were not entertained by MAHB.
"As per the meeting between MAHB and AirAsia which was chaired by Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, who was then Deputy Prime Minister, it was proposed that both the entities form a joint committee on the development of KLIA2.
"However, until now, there has been none. Although its quite late now, we are still open for a joint committee for the benefit of AirAsia, MAHB and all related parties in the development of the airport.
"Had the joint committee been formed, all these problems would not have cropped up as it would have been resolved internally," he told a media briefing here today.
He said the airline's main concern was the cost escalation of the new terminal which would result in higher rental, surcharges and extra bills imposed on AirAsia, when the company moves its operations to KLIA2 scheduled to operate in 2013.
This, he said, may also be a reason for AirAsia to increase its fares in future.
"Besides, we are requesting that MAHB agree to have a service level agreement with us to occupy the new airport as we have no such agreement now with the present low cost carrier terminal.
"We also want MAHB to state in black and white the current airport charges so that it will not be raised once we move to the new airport," he said.
Bo Lingam said the airline also requested for a taxiway to be built in the first phase of the new terminal and this was infact slated in the airport's initial runway plan, but the plan was aborted.
It has now been planned for construction in the second phase of the project.
"If the runway is not constructed, we are going to incur losses amounting to some RM40 million, annually, only on fuel, because we have to cross the runway without a taxiway," he added.
Bo Lingam also said AirAsia does not deny the fact that MAHB and the airline company had a total of 47 meetings on the new airport project.
"However, no decision was taken at the meetings. It was more one-sided with us presenting our latest plans and proposals and all they said was that the board would meet to deliberate and make a final decision.
"We want a low-cost airport, our operating procedures does not require a world-class airport. We have told them (MAHB) this many times but the latest development clearly shows that they are not getting what we are trying to prove here," he said.
Bo Lingam said in 2009, the company identified a piece of land and drew up a sample airport design.
"The cost of the project, if based on that design, would not have cost more than RM700 million, but without any reason, MAHB rejected both the site and design.
"We already know that the current site will incur more cost and work because the soil is soft but MAHB make the final decision and now the date of completion is being delayed from year-end to September 2013," he said.
He also said due to the delay, AirAsia had to defer new aircraft delivery due to space constraint.
"We are now talking with MAHB and related parties on securing a piece of land to park the new aircraft until the new airport is ready because we cannot keep deferring aircraft delivery just like that," he said.
AirAsia, Bo Lingam said had helped Malaysia place itself on the world map as one of countries offering low-cost travel.
"So, what's wrong if MAHB grants us a business partner relationship in this particular matter," he said.
AirAsia and MAHB are sheduled to have their update meetings on the new airport tomorrow.