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Be aware of your rights as air travellers

2 Sep, 2017

Ben and his family travelled by air from Malaysia to India for a holiday. On their arrival, Ben found that his family’s luggage did not arrive.

Previously, he might have struggled to figure out how to deal with this issue. But since the establishment of the Malaysian Aviation Commission (MAVCOM), this might be a thing of the past…

Go through this checklist when you’re buying an air ticket

26 Aug, 2017

Ben and his family travelled by air from Malaysia to India for a holiday. On their arrival, Ben found that his family’s luggage did not arrive.

Previously, he might have struggled to figure out how to deal with this issue. But since the establishment of the Malaysian Aviation Commission (MAVCOM), this might be a thing of the past…

When you fly, you have rights

11 Mar, 2017

Ben and his family travelled by air from Malaysia to India for a holiday. On their arrival, Ben found that his family’s luggage did not arrive.

Previously, he might have struggled to figure out how to deal with this issue. But since the establishment of the Malaysian Aviation Commission (MAVCOM), this might be a thing of the past…

Malaysians travelling by air need to know their consumer rights

4 Mar, 2017

Previously, Malaysian passengers who travelled by air had no specific protection. Complaints or disputes were channelled to the Consumer Tribunal and various consumer associations.

That changed when the Malaysian Aviation Commission (MAVCOM) was established last March. Finally, there is a mechanism in place to protect aviation consumers – in Malaysia, 89 million passengers flew in and out of airports last year…

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Dato’ Mah Weng Kwai

Former Commissioner, Malaysian Aviation Commission

YBhg. Dato’ Mah Weng Kwai is a former judge of the High Court of Malaya and the Court of Appeal. Upon retirement, he was appointed as Commissioner of the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (SUHAKAM) from 2016 to 2022, a member of the Judicial Appointments Commission and a Commissioner of the Malaysian Aviation Commission (MAVCOM). In 2021, he was appointed an independent Director and Chairman of the Securities Industry Dispute Resolution Centre. 

YBhg. Dato’ Mah was President of Malaysian Bar (2001 – 2003) and President of Law Association for Asia and the Pacific (LAWASIA) (2006 -2008) and is presently a consultant in the law firm of MahWengKwai & Associates. He is an Arbitrator on the panel of the Asian International Arbitration Centre (AIAC).

Prof. Dr. Jae Woon (June) Lee

Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law, Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK)

Dr. Jae Woon Lee is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Law at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He has been working, teaching and researching in the field of aviation law and policy since 2004. Born in Seoul and educated there as well as at McGill University (LLM) and National University of Singapore (PhD), his main research and teaching interests are aviation law and competition law. 

Prof. Lee has seven years of legal affairs experience in the airline industry, advising the company on issues relating to company liability, government regulation and competition law matters. He has acted as legal advisor to the Korean Government on aviation law issues and regularly attended the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Legal Committee as a Korean delegate. He is a member of ICAO Secretariat Study Group on Legal Issues related to Pilotless Aircraft (SSG-LIPA)

Prof. Lee has published on various aviation legal issues in both major air law journals and other leading journals. He serves on the editorial board of the Annals of Air and Space Law and is the editor of the book: Aviation Law and Policy in Asia: Smart Regulation in Liberalized Markets (2021).

Prof. Lee has served as a consultant/expert to government and international agencies, including the European Union Aviation Safety Agency, International Air Transport Association and the Hong Kong Competition Commission. He frequently presents at academic and aviation industry conferences and regularly comments in the media.

Amna Arshad

Head of U.S. Aviation Regulatory Practice, Special Counsel, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer

Mdm. Amna Arshad is Special Counsel in Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer Washington, DC office focusing on regulatory counseling, commercial aviation transactions and litigation. 

With more than 10 years of diverse experience in the public and private sectors, Amna has represented major US and foreign passenger and cargo air carriers and leading aviation-related entities including airports, aerospace manufacturers, travel distribution clients, drone operators, and corporations in a variety of federal regulatory, commercial, and litigation matters.

As an experienced advisor, Amna counsels private companies across a wide range of matters such as enforcement/litigation, investigations, route proceedings, rulemakings, antitrust/competition, international law, advertising, consumer protection, obstruction evaluation, economic/licensing matters, and regulatory due diligence on mergers and acquisitions involving aviation interests. Amna has also helped businesses navigate the challenging regulatory landscape of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and new and emerging technologies prior to and following the passage of Part 107, the regulations governing commercial UAS operations.

Amna spent nearly 6 years in the Office of Aviation Enforcement & Proceedings at the US Department of Transportation, where she was responsible for the enforcement of a variety of aviation consumer protection, licensing and civil rights matters. She drafted federal regulations and guidance materials, led regular investigations and audits of foreign and domestic airlines and ticket agents, negotiated consent decrees, and reviewed foreign conflict of laws waiver requests.

Michael Gill

Director of Legal Bureau, International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO)

Mr. Michael Gill is a UK and French national. He was appointed as Director, Legal Affairs & External Relations Bureau at ICAO in September 2021.

From 2013 until this year, he served in the dual roles of Director, Aviation Environment at the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and Executive Director of the Air Transport Action Group (ATAG) in Geneva. From 2007-2013, he was Senior Legal Counsel in IATA, supporting its external affairs portfolio. Before joining IATA, Michael was an aviation lawyer in private practice in London and Paris, acting for airlines and their insurers.

He holds law degrees from King’s College, London and the Sorbonne University in Paris, as well as a Master’s degree from the University of Edinburgh. He is admitted as a Solicitor in England & Wales and an Avocat in France.

Michael is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society and former Chairman of its Air Law Group.

Professor Emeritus Dato’ Dr. Sothi Rachagan

MAVCOM Consumer Protection Committee Member

Professor Emeritus Dato’ Dr. Sothi Rachagan is the Vice Chancellor of Nilai University. Prior to this he has served as Dean of the Faculty of Law, University of Malaya and as Vice Chancellor of Perdana University. Prof. Dato’ Sothi holds a B.A. (Malaya), Post-Grad Dip Arts (Otago), M.A (Otago), LL M (Bristol) and PhD (London). He is a Barrister-at-Law (Lincoln’s Inn) and Advocate and Solicitor of the High Court of Malaya.

He has been a Commissioner of the Malaysia Competition Commission (MyCC) and Chairman of its Working Committee on Advocacy since the inception of the MyCC in 2011.

Professor Emeritus Dato’ Dr. Sothi serves on the United Nations Trade Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) International Expert Panel on Consumer Protection. He has over the years worked closely with the Competition Law and Policy and Consumer Protection Branch of UNCTAD and drafted the consumer and competition laws of several developing and less developed countries. He wrote the original version of the UNCTAD Consumer Protection Manual and did its Review of Alternative Dispute Resolution Mechanisms. He also served as the Chair of the UNCTAD Working Committee on Financial Services for the revision of the UN Guidelines on Consumer Protection. He was the Alternate Head of Delegation for Malaysia for the First Intergovernmental Group of Experts on Consumer Protection and Policy 17 – 18 October 2016 organised by UNCTAD in Geneva.

He is a member of the Advisory Panels of Consumer and Competition Law Centres of several universities and is a past-president of the International Association of Consumer Law.

Professor Emeritus Dato’ Dr. Sothi has published widely and presented papers and keynote addresses on environmental, human rights, competition, and consumer and election laws.

Mohideen Abdul Kader

President, Consumer Association Penang (CAP)

Elected as president of CAP since 2019, superseding CAP’s former president, S.M. Mohamed Idris. CAP is a grassroots non-profit, civil society organisation based in Malaysia, established in 1969 to promote critical awareness and action among consumers in order to uphold their rights and interests. CAP’s activities are conducted from its office in Penang, engaging in education, community mobilisation, research, advocacy, training and publication.

Mohideen is a passionate and outspoken leader of CAP who is often pro-active in urging the government, policy makers and corporations and agencies to respond to the needs of consumers. He has written numerous opinion pieces in the media to express his views on various matters pertaining to consumers’ rights and needs.

Tan Sri Bashir Ahmad

Asia-Pacific Regional Advisor of Airports Council International (ACI) World Governing Board

YBhg. Tan Sri Bashir Ahmad currently holds the role of Asia-Pacific Regional Advisor, Airports Council International (ACI) World Governing Board and advisor to India-based GMR Airports. Following a distinguished 29-year airline career, he served the Malaysian Ministry of Transport as Aviation Advisor before moving to lead Malaysia Airports as CEO for 11 years. YBhg. Tan Sri was President of the ACI Asia-Pacific Regional Board from 2010 through 2014 and subsequently was Immediate Past President until May 2022.

YBhg. Tan Sri joined the aviation industry in 1972 as a Management Trainee in the then newly formed Malaysia Airlines. He worked in Malaysia Airlines for 29 years in various management positions of Director of Corporate Planning, Commercial Director and Executive Vice-President Airline.

In 2001, he joined the Government as Aviation Advisor to the Ministry of Transport.

In 2003, he joined Malaysia Airports where he served as CEO for 11 years until 2014 and then as Advisor to the Board for 3 years until 2017.

Ridha Aditya Nugraha

Air and Space Law Studies, Universitas Prasetiya Mulya Indonesia

Ridha Aditya Nugraha teaches Air and Space Law Studies at International Business Law Program, Universitas Prasetiya Mulya, Indonesia. In 2019-2020, he was engaged as ASEAN Passenger Protection Support Expert at the EU-EASA ARISE Plus Civil Aviation Project in ASEAN. Before joining academia, he worked with a Jakarta-based law firm, a Dutch low-fare airline, and a Danish international consulting firm. He has also an experience with a Singapore-based aviation consultant. He holds graduate degree from International Institute of Air and Space Law, Universiteit Leiden; and undergraduate degree from Faculty of Law, Universitas Indonesia.

Stefano Baronci

Director General of Airports Council International (ACI) Asia-Pacific

Mr. Stefano Baronci is the Director General of Airports Council International (ACI) Asia-Pacific, an association representing the interests of airports in Asia Pacific and the Middle East. Appointed in December 2019, Mr. Baronci is responsible for driving and executing the strategic plan of the association and overseeing a team of professionals at the Regional Office based in Hong Kong.

Mr. Baronci has 22 years of analytic and representational experience at national and international levels in the aviation sector, representing both airport and airline industries. He is very familiar with the ACI community, having previously served as the Director of Economics at ACI World in Montreal and Senior Policy Manager at ACI Europe in Brussels. He has also served as Secretary General of Assaeroporti, the Italian airport operators association, and Assistant Director and ATM Infrastructure Expert at the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

Mr. Baronci, a native of Italy, holds an Executive MBA from Warwick University in the United Kingdom and graduated with a Law degree from La Sapienza University in Rome, Italy. He is married with two children.

Freda Liu

Broadcast Journalist

A powerhouse communicator and connector, Freda Liu is a global speaker, author, broadcast journalist, emcee, moderator and trainer. She believes in the concept of revolving to evolve; a journey she personally embodies and imparts to others through her books and her work.

Freda has written six books namely “Life’s a Stage – Stories Of An Empowered Life, “PR Yourself” “Shake & Spear Your Business: The Romeo & Juliet Way,” & “Everybody Loves Ray” (biography), “Bursting Fixed Mindsets” and “In Your Skin.”

As a business broadcast journalist, she has conducted close to 10,000 interviews with thought leaders like Simon Sinek, Nobel Peace Prize Winner Muhammad Yunus of Grameen Bank, Former Prime Minister of Finland Alexander Stubb, author Stephen Covey, to former GE CEO Jack Welch.

Freda is highly sought after as a moderator, emcee and trainer having worked with Fortune 500 companies. Some of her awards include the ASEAN Rice Bowl Awards for Malaysia Startup Journalist Of The Year and the Kanebo Exceptional Award for Voice and Outstanding Graduate by the Malaysian Australian Alumni Council.

A big believer in social enterprises having come up with her series of videos and the judge for Chivas Regal’s The Venture programme. An inspirational spokesperson for sustainability, Freda is also a World Vision Malaysia advocate for WASH (Clean Water & Sanitation). In addition, she’s an ambassador for Women of Global Change KL Chapter and Ocean Hero Conservation and a business mentor for the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women.

Majoring in Marketing with a Bachelor of Business from University of Southern Queensland, she has recently completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Design Thinking and is certified as a Futurist by The Futurist Institute. She is a member of the National Association of Women Entrepreneurs Malaysia and the Malaysian Association of Professional Speakers.

Peter Alawani

Chief Economic Regulatory Framework Section, Air Transport Bureau, International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO)

Peter Alawani is the head of the Economic Regulatory Framework Section, Air Transport Bureau, International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).

Mr. Alawani has over 30 years’ experience in the field of Economic Regulations in Civil Aviation. Before joining ICAO in 2015, he served as General Manager, Air Transport Operations, Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, where he organised several international and regional conferences, assisted in the negotiation of more than thirty-five Bilateral Air Services Agreements between Nigeria and other Countries, granted operating authorisation to several foreign carriers, as well as participated in the development on Part 19 – Consumer Protection Regulations, Nigeria Civil Aviation Regulations.

He holds two Masters Degrees in Business Administration and Public Administration and has over the course of his career, received various trainings in air transport economics, aviation law, Consumer protection, airport, airline and air navigation management. He has served in several international Committees and Panels including the ICAO Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection (CAEP) and the Air Transport Regulatory Panel (ATRP).

His is presently responsible for updating and keeping current, ICAO’s Policy and Guidance Materials on Economic Regulation of International Air Transport and infrastructure management, including the issues of Consumer Protection. He serves as Secretary of the Air Transport Regulatory Panel (ATRP) and he is manager of the ICAO Air Services Negotiation (ICAN) Event among other responsibilities.

Olivier Waldner

Deputy Head of Unit Passenger Rights, Directorate General for Mobility and Transport European Commission (EU)

Olivier Waldner has over 35 years of experience in the field of transport. He began his career in 1987 in the toll motorways sector in France before joining the European Commission in 1989. In particular, he contributed to the development of trans-European transport networks and intelligent transport systems. For the last 20 years he has been familiar with air transport and the aviation industry

After September 11, he moved to aviation security and set up an aviation security inspection programme for the European Union. He then contributed to the optimization of the European air traffic management system. Since 2018 he has been in charge of the European Union’s passenger rights regulatory framework in the air sector as well as other modes of transport.

Under his leadership, an international seminar on air passenger rights was held in Brussels in May 2019, a seminar participated by the EU Member States and industry together with ICAO and a dozen of other leading states in the field of consumer protection, including Malaysia represented by MAVCOM.

Olivier holds a master’s degree in law and public administration from the Paris University, France.

Pushpalatha Subramaniam

Director of Consumer Affairs, Malaysian Aviation Commission (MAVCOM)

Mdm. Pushpalatha Subramaniam heads the Consumer Affairs Department in MAVCOM. In 2015, Pushpa was part of the establishment on the Malaysian Aviation Commission for Malaysia. She has been instrumental in establishing the first Malaysian Aviation Consumer Protection Code (MACPC) in 2016 in Malaysia, a regulation to protect travellers in the civil aviation industry.

Under her leadership, she had led the implementation of various consumer awareness and education initiatives, empowering travellers with information on their travel rights under the MACPC. In addition, her team has consistently achieved more than 90 per cent resolution of consumer complaints since the first year of MAVCOM’s operation.

Pushpa also leads the development of the Airports Quality of Service (QoS) Framework and oversees the implementation of the Framework with the aim of enhancing passenger’s convenience and comfort, more importantly ensuring efficiencies at airports in Malaysia. The QoS has been implemented at both the terminals at KLIA and work is still in progress for other airports in Malaysia.

Prior to this, she was the Senior Vice President in charge of customer experience in Malaysia Airlines (MAS) and later, Head of Customer Experience with Standard Chartered Malaysia.

Pushpa has more than 27 years of experience in the airline industry with niche expertise in managing consumer affairs. Pushpa holds a Bachelor’s in Business Administration (BBA) degree from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), Australia. She also spent five years on the Board of the Worldwide Airline Customer Relations Association (WACRA) and is a member of the International Aviation Women’s Association (IAWA).

Soukkhongthong Voraphet

Director of Air Transport Division, Department of Civil Aviation of Laos PDR

Mr. Voraphet has 10 years working experience in the aviation industry.

In 2019, he earned his Advanced Master in Air Transport Management and Specialised Executive Master of Air Transport Management having completed his thesis on ‘Challenges and Opportunities to develop Air Transport in the Lao PDR’.

Vinoop Goel

Asia-Pacific Regional Director of Airports & External Relations, International Air Transport Association (IATA)

Vinoop Goel is the Asia-Pacific Regional Director of Airports & External Relations for the International Air Transport Association (IATA). He is based at their Asia-Pacific regional office in Singapore. Vinoop leads a team that is responsible for all IATA’s activities in the Asia-Pacific region relating to Airports including Infrastructure development, Passenger Facilitation, Cargo and Security. In addition to this, Vinoop also heads the Member and External Relations department for the region that is responsible for Sustainability, Government Regulations and Aviation policy matters.

Vinoop has a degree in Computer Science and Engineering from India Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi in India. He has more than 3 decades of aviation industry experience including a 14-year stint in Japan and has been with IATA since 2005.

Saravanan Thambirajah

Chief Executive Officer, Federation of Malaysian Consumers Associations (FOMCA)

A prominent consumer activist spearheads several consumer bodies in the country, namely as the Chief Executive Officer of the Federation of Malaysian Consumers Associations (FOMCA), the umbrella body of consumer organizations in the country;  the Director of Education and Research Association for Consumers (ERA Consumer Malaysia), an organization that conducts research, documentation and capacity building activities towards  building self-reliant, empowered communities; and is the Chief Executive Officer of the National Consumer Complaints Center (NCCC), which acts as a one-stop avenue for consumer grievances in Malaysia.