KUCHING: For Malaysia Airlines subsidiary MASwings to be a regional airline according to the Sarawak government’s intentions, then it will need at least four jet aircraft.
MASwings presently only has turbo propeller planes and operates the rural air services segment in Sarawak and Sabah. But last Monday, it received the green light from federal decision makers to fly international destinations.
State Tourism Minister Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Openg, who was addressing the lack of air connectivity to Sarawak during a press conference here yesterday, said MASwings needed a bigger fleet.
Although he was pleased MASwings would commence its Pontianak-Kuching-Brunei flights next January, he said MASwings ought to also take up routes to Singapore and Hong Kong. The two hubs, Johari said, were key to European travelers and those from the US.
“From the US, their transit points are Hong Kong and Tokyo. For Europeans, their transit is usually Singapore. We are right in the middle of all those places. We need to be connected to those hubs,” Johari told reporters.
Johari said MAS was plagued by “problems at the moment”.
“In my personal opinion, MAS should concentrate on international routes, and then leave domestic and closer regional routes to other carriers, like MASwings.”
Johari added that MAS needed to have more “lean” expenditure.
Sarawak’s air connectivity has been a perennial problem, which was made worse when another MAS subsidiary, Firefly, began canceling routes between the state and Peninsular Malaysia recently.
The move left tourism players statewide fuming with the about-turn, as Firefly had been promising continuity and further expansion in Sarawak. Firefly’s unexpected pullout was the result of a massive flight rationalization exercise between MAS and AirAsia.
That exercise was the result of a shareswap deal, announced in August, after MAS posted woeful financial results.
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