Mavcom fined AirAsia and AirAsia X RM2 million each for a repeat card-fee violation

In January 2020 the Malaysian Aviation Commission (Mavcom) fined AirAsia Group Bhd and AirAsia X Bhd RM2 million each for continuing to charge credit card, debit card and online banking processing fees separately from their base fares — conduct that contravenes the fare-disclosure requirements of the Malaysian Aviation Consumer Protection Code 2016 — for the 10 August to 11 September 2019 period. It was the second time both airlines were found in breach of the same provision.

The first breach, for charging the same fees outside base fares between 1 June and 9 August 2019, drew penalties of only RM200,000 each in September 2019. When the conduct recurred in the weeks after, Mavcom set the second penalty at ten times the first. The code's amendments, in force since 1 June 2019, require airlines to disclose the full fare to consumers.

In the same statement Mavcom fined Malaysia Airports (Sepang) Sdn Bhd, the KLIA and klia2 operator, RM856,875 for missing its Airports Quality of Service Framework targets for April–June 2019. The enforcement drive came as the Malaysian government moved to dissolve Mavcom and transfer its functions to the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia.

RM2 million each — 10 times the RM200,000 penalty imposed for the same breach in September 2019.

Charging payment-processing fees outside the advertised base fare hid part of the real ticket price from fare-comparison shoppers.

The June 2019 MACPC amendments made full-fare disclosure mandatory, and the airlines kept the old fee structure anyway.

The first RM200,000 penalty in September 2019 did not change behaviour — the same breach recurred in the following weeks.

Mavcom escalated to RM2 million each to make repetition more expensive than compliance.

A small fine for a disclosure breach is a warning shot; regulators escalate an order of magnitude when the conduct repeats.

The RM2 million penalties, ten times the 2019 amounts, were announced alongside the RM856,875 fine on MA Sepang at a moment when the commission itself was slated for dissolution into the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia. This reporting does not record any appeal by the airlines or any further escalation against either carrier over the same provision.