AAX’s business model requires tickets to be sold in advance. That’s the same for many budget carriers. Upon sale, the service is not rendered until a passenger has made the trip. And when a passenger pays the agreed sum, it should be in a trust account to be drawn when the service is rendered – but that’s not how it works. The airline uses it to run operations.
Source:
https://www.thestar.com.my
The pandemic has impacted all carriers. Some more than others. Passengers deserve a refund or a full credit to some future date. It is grossly unfair for a passenger to pay RM1,000 for a ticket and get RM5 under the restructuring scheme. And if it is just a couple of hundred, then they may get a few cents if at all. The payout is meaningless. But where is Malaysia Aviation Commission (Mavcom) on this?
The silly thing is before the restructuring AAX made the announcement that customers will get travel credits for tickets purchased under an extended validity program. That sounds fair but now under the new restructuring scheme they get back 0.5% of the sum paid-in They are now in a predicament worse than the shareholders.
Travel agents are no better. They receive 0.5% settlement as agents. How will they survive or promote AAX in the future? AAX owes RM600 million to passengers and travel agents.
Will passengers want to travel with AAX knowing that a pandemic or for some other unknown reason, the airline cannot render its service? It is like a bank telling its depositor we could only return RM5 of your RM1,000 in savings account, because we are in a deep financial turmoil. Are we in Taliban territory? Surely, even the Taliban will know what is fair under Islamic law!
References:
A raw deal from AAX, Pankaj C. Kumar, Starbiz, 30 October 2021
AirAsia X offers 0.5% deal to settle RM600mil debt to passengers, agents, K. Parkaran, FreeMalaysiaToday, 31 Oct 2021
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