Malaysia Airport Holdings Berhad (MAHB) is violating the very same guidelines that it cites to justify an increase of passenger service charges (PSC) at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (KLIA2), a lawmaker claims.

Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua said while the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has a policy of "non-discriminatory pricing" for PSC, the MAHB is ignoring some other clauses.

"The ICAO specifically says that 'in general, aircraft operators and other airport users, including end-users, should not be charged for facilities and services they do not use'.

"Hence MAHB is clearly violating this guideline when it increases the PSC at KLIA2.

"This is very simply because the facilities and services provided at KLIA2 are vastly inferior to KLIA," Pua said in a statement today.

MAHB and the Malaysian Aviation Commission (Mavcom) will be raising the PSC at KLIA2 from RM50 per passenger to RM73 starting Jan 1, 2018.

This is to equalise the price with that of KLIA.

In justifying the price hike, MAHB has said that KLIA2 is not a low-cost carrier terminal, but a second permanent terminal for KLIA, while Mavcom said both airlines provide a similar quality of service.

"If MAHB and Mavcom insist on hiking the fees at KLIA2, then they must prove how KLIA2 is an equal to KLIA to the angry Malaysians out there.

"If they fail to do so, then it cannot be clearer that the entire fee hike exercise is to make more profits for MAHB, particularly since MAHB has taken billions of ringgit of debt to fund its RM4 billion KLIA2 misadventure," Pua said referring to cost overruns in building the second airport.

Besides Pua, Malaysia's leading low-cost airline AirAsia is among those strongly opposed to the price hike.