KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 16): The High Court on Friday ordered MYAirline Sdn Bhd to pay slightly over RM17 million to two subsidiaries of Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (KL:AIRPORT) after granting summary judgments to the subsidiaries.
Judicial Commissioner (JC) Gan Techiong in his summary judgments (decision without going to full trial) awarded RM9.1 million to Malaysia Airports (Sepang) Sdn Bhd (MASSB) and RM8.36 million to Malaysia Airports Sdn Bhd (MASB), who are both plaintiffs in the case.
This amount is the sum the airline owes the two plaintiffs in overdue airport service charges.
In his summary judgments, Gan said that the two plaintiffs had to collect charges from airlines for services provided. He then proceeded to award the sums to the plaintiffs.
Gan also granted RM10,000 to be paid by MYAirline to both plaintiffs as cost.
Earlier, MYAirline had filed for the suit to be struck out. MYAirline took the position that the plaintiffs should have resorted to the dispute resolution mechanism provided under Sections 74 to 78 of the Malaysia Aviation Commission Act 2015, before filing the civil suit against them.
The airport operators previously argued for a summary judgement as MYAirline had not filed any defence to the suit.
Before Gan gave his summary judgments, he dismissed the airlines’ bid to strike out the suit.
Gan ruled that Sections 74 to 78 of the Malaysia Aviation Commission Act 2015 did not apply here, as the provisions in the Act did not cover disputes on airport charges.
He said that the Malaysian Aviation Commission (Mavcom) did not have the power to decide on contractual disputes between aviation services. Rather, the power to order payment on airport charges belonged to the civil courts and select tribunals like the Industrial Court.
Gan added that Mavcom had no power to hear the dispute as MYAirline has had its service licence revoked last year.
“Are the plaintiffs left without remedy to claim these unpaid charges to them as the defendant is no longer licensed to operate?” he said.
The judge then struck out the application and ordered MYAirline to pay a total RM30,000 in costs to the two plaintiffs.
The charges imposed on the now-defunct airline by MASSB were for the use of airport services and facilities at KLIA Terminal 2 (KLIA2), while the charges imposed by MASB were for use of the same at eight other airports under MAHB. Outstanding charges include check-in charges, aerobridge charges, and late-payment charges incurred since March last year.
The airline has suspended operations since Oct 12 last year.
MASB and MASSB were represented by Shannon Rajan, Eric Gomez, and Katelyn Yeoh from Messrs Skrine, while MYAirline was represented by Nasema Jalaludheen and Rachel See.