Flights cancelled as they didn’t fall under rural air service, says ministry

 The transport ministry says there were already commercial flights operating from Kuching to Miri, Sibu and Bintulu.

The rural air service was previously served by MASwings, a former Malaysia Aviation Group subsidiary that was officially taken over by the Sarawak government and rebranded as AirBorneo on Jan 1. (Bernama pic)

PETALING JAYA:

The transport ministry today explained why flights from Kuching to Miri, Sibu and Bintulu no longer fall under the government’s rural air service, which provides flights into East Malaysia’s interiors.

The ministry said the then Malaysian Aviation Commission reviewed the rural air service’s routes in 2017 and found that six routes no longer qualified as public service obligations since there were commercial flights for these routes.

The six routes were Kuching to Miri, Bintulu and Sibu as well as Kota Kinabalu to Sandakan, Tawau and Miri.

In a statement today, it said this move encouraged local airlines to operate more flights for these routes, ultimately benefitting customers.

“The Civil Aviation Act defines public service obligation as the provision of flights for the carriage of passengers, mail or cargo for routes that airlines would not serve if only considering commercial interests,” it said.

The ministry pointed out that currently, AirAsia serves the Kuching-Miri route 46 times a week, followed by Kuching-Bintulu (38) and Kuching-Sibu (37).

It said the Sarawak government’s AirBorneo has applied to serve these routes commercially.

“The Kuching-Sibu and Kuching-Miri routes are intercity flights and are not categorised as rural services. Therefore, these routes should not be subsidised because they involve two cities,” it said.

The rural air service was served by MASwings, a former Malaysia Aviation Group subsidiary which was officially taken over by the Sarawak government and rebranded as AirBorneo on Jan 1.

Yesterday, Sarawak transport minister Lee Kim Shin said AirBorneo did not currently fly from Kuching to Miri, Sibu and Bintulu because of an agreement inked by the Pakatan Harapan-led federal government in 2019.

Lee said these routes were discontinued from the rural air service’s public service obligation framework in 2019, and that the state government had requested to reinstate them under the service. - FMT