The National Union of Flight Attendants Malaysia (NUFAM) has taken the country's Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) to task for its decision to renew the AOC of Eaglexpress Air Charter (Kuala Lumpur International) despite the carrier owing employees months of unpaid back wages.
NUFAM questioned why the DCA had decided to allow the charter specialist to continue operations when it used the exact same conditions to revoke Rayani Air's AOC earlier this year.
"What is the real motive behind [the] DCA's move to issue the license in a hurry, despite knowing that the firm is facing financial problems?" Union secretary-general, Mohd Azam, said via the Malaysiakini outlet.
Employees have reportedly not been paid for the last three months and, despite assurances from Eaglexpress management that it would settle their claims by the end of August, nothing has happened.
A DCA spokesman has defended the action claiming their scrutinization focused only on the airline's technical abilities as opposed to its financial status. The latter is the sole responsibility of the Malaysian Aviation Commission (MAVCOM) he added.
For its part, MAVCOM has said it would only renew Eaglexpress's Air Services Permit (ASP) for a further twelve months from September 1 subject to it complying with specific conditions by November 30, 2016.
Eaglexpress operates four B747-400s (three of which are in service for Saudia (SV, Jeddah International) and one in service with flynas (XY, Riyadh)) and one B747-400(M) (stored in Kuala Lumpur International).
