MAS flies into a ‘storm’ in Sabah

A Sabah minister has ticked off MAS' claim that popular Kota Kinabalu-Perth and Kota Kinabalu-Seoul routes were unprofitable.

KOTA KINABALU: A Sabah Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition member has suggested that the government adopt an “open sky” policy to allow other airline companies to come in to Sabah to better serve the needs of air travellers in the state.

Sabah MCA chief Edward Khoo said that it was obvious that Malaysia Airlines (MAS) could not cater to Sabah and Sarawak and it was time it let go its stranglehold on the air transport industry in the state.

“If MAS still doesn’t change its arrogant, selfish attitude and refuse to assume its corporate social responsibility… we might as well open up our air space for better competition among the airline companies.

“I believe this would be more beneficial for the state and its people and the tourism industry in particular,” said Khoo, who is also an assistant minister in the Chief Minister’s Department.

The hotel and tourism industry in Sabah is furious with the national airline for crippling its business by axing four regional routes from Sabah and taking eight international flights off its schedule from this year.

Several business operators operating along the city’s waterfront have also expressed their outrage at the chaotic air transport policy adopted by the government and MAS with regard to Sabah and Sarawak.

Agreeing with them, Kong reminded MAS that all these years the people of Sabah had given their undivided support to the airline, despite the presence of other airlines.

“But MAS seemed to have forgotten about it or just simply ignored it.”

“This is absolutely unfair to the people of Sabah,” he said, challenging the airline to show that it had not been parochial in its treatment of the two Borneo states.

“Furthermore, to my knowledge, MAS did not incur losses in the popular Kota Kinabalu-Perth and Kota Kinabalu-Seoul routes,” he said, refuting airline management’s claim that it was cutting unprofitable routes from its schedule.

1Malaysia hot-air

Khoo said MAS had an obligation towards the people of Sabah and Sarawak and not only towards the Peninsula.

The Kapayan assemblyman also chided MAS for ripping up Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s “1Malaysia” motto, saying that if it did not reinstate all the routes immediately, the message in the oft-repeated national mantra would be mere hot air.

The grumbling over MAS and budget airline AirAsia has gathered steam in the state over the last month as more Sabahans joined in the chorus of protests.

For years now the people in the state have been complaining about the cabotage policy enforced by the federal government in January 1990 to protect the country’s shipping industry, but which critics say is weighted in favour of businesses operating out of the peninsula.

One hiccup in the policy, which the government has failed to foresee, was that consumers in Sabah and Sarawak would be “subsidising” the already subsidised Malaysian shipping industry.

Under the policy, all goods imported into the state can only be transported by local shipping companies, most of whom operate out of the main port of Klang, which also receives the bulk of the federal allocations each year.