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Malaysia denies AirAsia's effort to rename airport terminal

Xinhua, June 22, 2016 Adjust font size:

The Malaysian government denied the effort by AirAsia, Southeast Asia's leading budget airlines, on Wednesday to rename its main airport terminal in the country.

AirAsia announced that the Kuala Lumpur International Airport second terminal (KLIA2), where it operates most of its flights, would be rebranded as low-cost carrier terminal 2 (LCCT2), in the promotional materials to its website, tickets and even taxi services.

However, Malaysia's airport authorities MAHB responded that the unilateral renaming of the terminal by AirAsia would be a violation against aviation law.

Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said in a statement on Wednesday that the renaming of the terminal is "neither necessary, nor practical, nor accurate".

AirAsia and MAHB have been long in a strain relations over the Kuala Lumpur airport terminal, the major gateway to the country. The budget airlines was forced to relocate to the new terminal from its original low-cost carrier terminal in 2014.

Liow said his ministry acknowledged AirAsia's intention to brand KLIA2 as a low-cost terminal as part of their efforts to bring in more travellers to Malaysia.

"We are open to hear from them what proposals they may have in place in order to position KLIA2 internationally as a leading low-cost terminal to spur the nation's tourism and aviation industries," he said.

AirAsia's chief executive Aireen Omar complained that the airlines growth had since been hampered by the design and check-in system of the terminal, which could not handle larger volume of passengers.

She also described the new terminal as "beyond repair" for its building quality, which cost AirAsia to maintain operations. Enditem