The Malaysia Association Tour Agency (MATA) has called on the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to waive all fees for its members to assist them during the COVID-19 crisis.

Known in Malaysian as the PersatuanAgensiPelancongan Malaysia the association said the  World Health Organisation declared COVID-19 a pandemic and travel restrictions have been imposed throughout the world that has brought tourism to its knees.

 MATA is asking IATA to waive the 2021 membership fees, the 2020 monthly fees (January – December 2020) and extend the 2019 audited account submission to December 2020 to reduce the financial impact on its members

“This move will help our members who have shown their strong support towards IATA over the years, the MATA statement read.

“Since IATA has forecasted that 50% of all airline business will disappear this year throughout the world, we believe that IATA can do something to help our members to avoid closing their doors.

“As this is an exceptional situation, we hope IATA would also take an exceptional move to waive the above fees.”

MATA also urged all stakeholders in the travel industry to work together to uphold the industry, “as we are now experiencing the biggest crisis in tourism history.”

It warned that a failure to respond to MATA’s request could result in IATA losing more business “as we will advise our members not to renew their IATA membership.”

To conclude, the association’s president Dato Mohd Khalid Harun delivered a parting shot across the bows of the global aviation body saying: “We wonder if IATA is still relevant to the industry today?

MATA – PersatuanAgensiPelancongan Malaysia represents some 3116 members including travel agencies, hotels, homestays, airlines, theme parks, tourist guides, insurance companies and SME related to the tourism industry.

MATA should not be confused with the Malaysian Association of tour and Travel agents (MATTA).