Tiang: it is time rural air service be improved

suppadmin | August 5, 2018

“It is time for Sarawak Government to step in to ensure MASwings’ new rural air services (RAS) contract which is yet to be made, would provide better flight connectivity and reasonable airfares in Sarawak,” said the Supp Youth Chief Michael Tiang who is also a political secretary for the Chief Minister of Sarawak in his press statement.

“According to Mr. Aminuddin Zakaria, the Chief Executive Officer for MASwings Sdn. Bhd. when he was conducting a dialogue at Sibu Chinese Chamber of Commerce on August 2nd, the RAS services solely operated by MASwings across Sabah and Sarawak ended in September last year. So far a new contract for extension of MASwings services in both Sabah and Sarawak has not been finalized and made.”

Tiang opined that since the new RAS contract is still in the pipeline, Sarawak Government should seize this opportunity to talk to both Ministry of Transport and Mavcom to iron out various Sarawak’s domestic flight connectivity issues which were not resolved by MASwings services in the past 10 years before the new contract is finalized by the relevant parties.

“Flight connectivity for Sibu in the past ten years has been a major issue and has become a nightmare for travelers coming in and going out of Sibu. Sibu being centrally located has the most towns in the state that relies on Sibu airport, has been hoping for better flight connectivity for years. But instead when Maswing replaces MAS in 2006, the flights rationalizing after MAS stop all internal flight to Sibu, the connectivity gotten worse and worse. Sibu is a transport hub for Sarawak’s central region, we have been demanding for better connectivity between Sibu to Kuching, Bintulu, Miri and Kota Kinabalu. Since Sibu airport is not an international airport, we need earlier flights to Kuching and Kota Kinabalu so that the passengers can connect to international flights. For example, the earliest flight from Sibu to KK would only arrive at around 10am, but most international flights to China would depart around 10am also.”

“Besides flight connectivity, MASwings’ airfares need to be reviewed too since their airfares have not been very “friendly” to Sarawakian passengers. Many times a round trip from Sibu to KK can cost over RM1000 and a round trip from Sibu to Miri would cost over RM400.”

According to Tiang, MASwings is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Malaysia Airlines Bhd. In fact MASwings’ cost of operating RAS is fully borne by the federal government in the form of subsidies and aircraft rental payments. Tiang pointed out that currently MASwings is receiving about RM190 million per year in subsidies for its RAS concession.

“MASwings with the RM190 million annual subsidy is not competitive in their air ticket pricing. Nowadays passengers opt for bigger aircrafts and cheaper fares on other airlines, and this downward spiral will continue as long as MASwings fares are uncompetitive and unattractive.”

“I appreciate that the federal government is paying subsidies to sustain MASwings so as to operate RAS in Sabah and Sarawak but I don’t understand why MASwings still needs to charge its customers exorbitant prices and by doing so MASwings is flying half-empty aircrafts most of the time.” “I also observed that most of the best hours and routes are taken up by Airasia and their flights are full. Instead of competing for the hotspots, MASwings aircrafts are flying at off peak hours with very limited routes. Now who is the national airline that receives government subsidies here?” questioned Tiang. “If paying subsidies to an airline still doesn’t serve Sarawak people’s interests, the sky should be open for other commercial airlines to come in to compete or maybe the subsidies should go to support other airlines which can serve the people better.”