KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 18): Airport operator Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) said klia2 is not a low-cost airport terminal.

In a statement today, MAHB said that together with the government, it had made the strategic decision to build a second permanent terminal for Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) that will accommodate increased capacity requirements, or in other words future growth.

It said that in building it, the needs of all stakeholders including airlines, government authorities and the community had been considered and accommodated.

"This was a necessary approach because an airport system is a long-term public infrastructure that must serve the needs of the country's current and future civil aviation industry.

"This development has no bearing on the Passenger Service Charge (PSC) rates," it said.

MAHB said in January 2017, the government had made the decision to equalise PSC for the two terminals in KLIA and all other airports in Malaysia.

It said this was done after an extensive study conducted by the Malaysian Aviation Commission (MAVCOM) on aviation charges across industry.

It explained that MAVCOM had stated its position that the equalisation will facilitate an environment of fairer competition between airlines operating at these two terminals, as well as allow Malaysia to be better aligned to international guidelines, including with the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) principle of non-discriminatory pricing at airports.

MAHB said the PSC rate is independent of the cost of airport development.

"Whereas some other countries charge passengers with a separate airport development fee in addition to the PSC, this is not the case in Malaysia.

"Our PSC rates remain one of the cheapest in the region and in the world, even after the full equalisation," it stressed.

MAHB said it has provided numerous clarification on klia2's development cost of RM4 billion whereby the development of klia2 took into consideration all the needs of its stakeholders such as the evolution of the low-cost airline business models which are now catering for transfer passengers and utilising wide body aircraft, as well as the projected growth by airlines in the low-cost travel segment.

MAHB was responding to a report last week quoting DAP's Tony Pua as saying that travellers will indirectly subsidise a "defective" klia2 that was built for RM2.3 billion more than initially projected when the airport fee there is increased by RM13 next year.

The Petaling Jaya Utara MP had also said it was unreasonable to try and equalise the fees charged by both the klia2 low-cost terminal and the KLIA for full-service airlines by claiming their facilities were comparable.