Demand of refunds from defunct airline Rayani Air have dominated the number of complaints received by the Malaysian Aviation Commission (Mavcom), in its first year of inception.

Its inaugural consumer report released today reveals that the commission had received a total of 1,639 complaints in the 12 months since March 2016.

Of these, 673 are complaints about refund requests against Rayani, whose Air Service License was revoked by Mavcom in June last year.

“In collaboration with Bank Negara Malaysia, passengers who booked their travels with credit cards were able to receive their refunds.

“As at Feb28, 2017, approximately 50 percent of Rayani passengers on Mavcom’s record have received their refunds.

“Mavcom is unable to confirm the refund status of passengers who are not registered with Mavcom, as they may have approached their respective banks directly to apply for their refunds,” the commission said in its report.

According to the report, the second most common complaint was about demands for refunds against AirAsia (119 complaints), followed by complaints about mishandled baggage against Malaysia Airlines (69 complaints).

In total, complaints about refunds make up the majority (55 percent) of the complaints received by Mavcom, followed by mishandled baggage (10 percent) and flight cancellations (9 percent).

Meanwhile, Malindo Airlines led the way in terms of the number of complaints received per million passengers carried. It had 20 complaints per million passengers carried.

AirAsia X and Malaysia Airlines tied for second place, with each receiving 14 complaints for every million passengers carried.

In third place is AirAsia, with nine complaints per million passengers, which is below the industry average last year of 11 complaints per million passengers.

The Mavcom report did not provide information on the rate of complaints for Rayani or foreign airlines, but these received a total of 737 and 47 complaints, respectively.

The commission had also received a total of seven complaints regarding airports.

“Mavcom had successfully managed, resolved and closed 95 percent of these complaints. Most complaints were on airlines while a small number of complaints were lodged regarding airports,” the commission said.

The commission was established on March 1, 2016 to regulate the economic and commercial aspects of Malaysia’s civil aviation industry including consumer protection, whereas the separate Department of Civil Aviation regulates the technical, safety, and security aspects of the industry.

The report said, the commission had introduced an online complaints management system on its website, which has been available since May 5 last year.

It said consumers should first lodge a complaint with airlines or airports and allow them an opportunity to resolve the complaint.

The matter should be escalated to Mavcom if they are dissatisfied with the resolution or if they do not receive a response within 30 days.

In addition, the commission said it had barred airlines from pre-selecting optional services for passengers during the ticket booking process.

These services would instead be available on an opt-in basis, and must be communicated in a clear and unambiguous manner to passengers during the booking process.

“Mavcom is pleased to advise that all local carriers have since August 2016 complied with the opt-in requirement.

“Consumers can now decide to purchase any optional services that is offered by airlines as opposed to airlines pre-selecting the services for consumers, previously,” it said.