SEPANG (Sept 26): AirAsia Bhd, the short-haul airline business of Capital A Bhd (KL:CAPITALA), is planning to introduce mandatory carbon fees on air travel across all AirAsia operations starting January 2025, said its chief executive officer Tan Sri Tony Fernandes.
Fernandes said the group is in the process of seeking approval from all the authorities in the country where it is operating including Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines and Cambodia.
“We will do it in January next year because I don't want to just do it in Malaysia. We are trying to get all the approvals from the Asean governments [to impose the carbon fees],” Fernandes told reporters on Thursday after launching the aircraft maintenance hangar of Asia Digital Engineering (ADE), the maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) arm of Capital A.
The carbon fee, which will be added to the airline's fares, is to contribute to the government's efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the aviation sector.
“We have an option [for passengers to voluntarily pay the carbon fees], but we are not going to make it optional. If you put it optional, no one is going to do it,” said Fernandes.
In September, Malaysian Aviation Commission (Mavcom) said that airlines operating in and out of the country have the discretion on whether or not to impose a carbon fee on air travel.
National carrier Malaysia Airlines Bhd has made the carbon levy optional for its passengers.
For a successful implementation of the carbon fee collection, Fernandes said there is a need to raise an awareness and understanding among the public about the rationale behind it.
"The biggest thing we can do is educate the public. All of us need to do something. So we want to educate the public [about the carbon fees] and we want to make sure that whatever money we raise are for investments that go into projects that will reduce carbon in Asean,” he added.
Shares of Capital A settled up 2.5 sen or 2.82% at 91 sen on Thursday, valuing the company at RM3.9 billion.