KUALA LUMPUR: The Transport Ministry today revealed that it was caught by surprise by the suspension of low-cost carrier MYAirline Sdn Bhd (MYAirline), earlier this morning.
Its minister Anthony Loke Siew Fook said the ministry only got to know the about the news late last night, adding that the matter also did not go through the approval of the Malaysian Aviation Commission (Mavcom).
He said the suspension had also affected 125,000 passengers, with tickets being sold up until March 2024.
"I would like to go on record that we were caught by surprise as we only knew about the suspension last night and by 6am today, we got to know about the suspension announcement.
"I was also in contact with the Macvom's chief executive officer, who also had no idea about the matter.
"This is clearly an irresponsible action and MoT through Mavcom will make sure they are held accountable. They should not also take immediate steps to refund affected passengers, but to also apologise to them publicly," he told a press conference in Parliament, today.
The sudden suspension had also led to RM20 million in losses to the passengers, according to Loke.
Following this, he added that the ministry alongside Mavcom is looking through ways to refund the tickets by cooperating with Bank Negara Malaysia, including establishing a task force to resolve the matter.
"We understand that most of the passengers use credit card transactions, hence, we need cooperation with BNM as well in order to return full refunds to credit card users.
"This is also because the service has not been rendered yet, hence, we need a mechanism to fasten the refund process."
Meanwhile, Loke added that there were also no signs of the carrier at the airport this morning when being looked at by Mavcom representatives.
"This is a highly irresponsible act and if you are a responsible company, you should at least inform and not just abruptly stop the operation like this when you have hundreds of thousands of tickets sold.
"If you are facing problems, you should come forward and discuss with us to see what are the mitigation plans. There must be a timeline."
At the same time, Loke added that MoT will decide on the status of MYAirline's air service license (ASL), despite rumours of the carrier having new investors.
"They still have the licence so we will decide what to do. From our understanding, they are also in the process of getting new investors, however, there is no more value in the airline if the license is revoked."
MYAirline had earlier announced the suspension of its flight operations starting today due to financial pressures.
Previously, Business Times reported that the budget carrier is struggling financially as payments to its service providers were delayed and employees' salaries were not paid on time.
This comes after the airline's chief executive officer (CEO), Rayner Teo, tendered his resignation last week by citing health reasons.
There were also talks that the carrier is facing financial issues as payments to its service providers, including Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) were either delayed or remained unpaid.
It was also believed that staff salaries were also not paid on time for several months.
