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Air Asia X refutes TIA's claim of deferring due payments
Malaysia’s low-cost carrier Air Asia X on Sunday claimed that it has consistently made monthly payments to the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (Caan) in response to Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) claims that the carrier’s flight was halted for 40 minutes on Friday for non payments.Malaysia’s low-cost carrier Air Asia X on Sunday claimed that it has consistently made monthly payments to the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (Caan) in response to Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) claims that the carrier’s flight was halted for 40 minutes on Friday for non payments.
Issuing a press statement on Sunday, the airline said the outstanding payments claimed by Caan are due to payments which were not made by AirAsia X’s former local partner in Nepal—Incentive Group of Companies (IGC) to Caan for at least six years ago where AirAsia X was not notified by Caan of these outstanding payments.
“While this late notification has caused AirAsia X to express grave concern over Caan’s accounting practices and management of its financial records, AirAsia X has been in direct contact with Caan through written and direct communication, as well as face-to-face meetings to resolve the issue,” the company press statement reads.
“The issue includes the recommendation that IGC be made direct liable for these long-outstanding payments.” The company has also urged that Caan open an investigation into incidences of bounced payments by IGC recently,” the statement said. According to Caan, a cheque of Rs75 million submitted by IGC was bounced.
“In any event, in the spirit of resolving the issue amicably, AirAsia X had remitted 3 tranches of payments to Caan with the latest payment having been made in July 2018,” the company said. “AirAsia X had incurred additional operational cost and resources to make these payments, which were made by AirAsia X in good faith even after Caan, had not taken any action against IGC despite AirAsia X’s recommendations to do so.”
The airline also said that the Flight D7 193 bound for Kuala Lumpur from Kathmandu on Friday was not halted and the flight in fact departed on time at 1445hrs local time.
However, Raj Kumar Chettri, general manager of TIA, had told the Post that the carrier deferred payment and that they were forced to halt its scheduled flight for 40 minutes on Friday.
TIA also through its tweet handle @TIACAO2 has informed that—“Today 2075/5/1 Air Asia X flight was withheld around half an hour by TIA management due outstanding sums payment delayed by Air's Asia X. After concrete commitment to pay within time frame the flight was released.”
Today2075/5/1 Air Asia X flight withheld around half an hour by TIA management due outstanding sums payment delayed by Ai's Asia x .. after concrete commitment to pay within time frame then only flight released..
— TIA,Kathmandu (@TIACAO2) August 18, 2018
AirAsia X said it would extend its cooperation with Caan and TIA to resolve the above issue, but wishes to highlight and reiterate that it views the airport authority’s management of its accounts and ability to provide reliable and accurate accounts and statements to the airline with utmost importance.
“The ongoing viability of a working relationship with the authority will depend on this factor.”