An Air Service Licence (ASL) is required to transport passengers, mail or cargo for hire or reward by air between any two (2) or more places, of which one (1) falls within Malaysia’s borders. This shall not apply to a person who is permitted to operate a scheduled journey to or from Malaysia under the terms of any agreement or arrangement entered into by the Malaysian Government, such as foreign air carriers designated to fly to Malaysia under Air Service Agreements.
Every licence includes specific legally-binding conditions on the services that the licensee is authorised to operate, the validity period of the licence as well as other conditions to which the licence is subjected to.
An ASL apply only to journeys with a fixed schedule, such as timetabled commercial flights. For unscheduled journeys, the correct permit to apply for is the Air Service Permit.
Any person looking to apply for an ASL should contact aerolicence@caam.gov.my to set up a pre-application meeting.
Applications are assessed based on a range of criteria, including but not limited to the following:
- whether the applicant is a company incorporated in Malaysia and is directly under the control of a Malaysian company as well as the ownership structure of the applicant;
- demand for air transport in the proposed areas of operation;
- the experience and competency of the management team of the company;
- the feasibility of the proposed business plan;
- the financial viability of the business; and
- the existence of other similar services, their efficiency and regularity in the industry.
The CAAM decisions relating to ASL can be found here.
To renew your ASL, a written application should be submitted to aerolicence@caam.gov.my to initiate a formal application process. Initiate a formal application process. Upon full submission of the all required documentation, the document evaluation would commence.
Every holder of an ASL is required to provide regular financial and operational reports as part of their licence conditions.
