MASIDI SUPPORTS SABAH AIR'S REQUEST

THE STATE Government has requested for the routes and landing rights to be handed over to Sabah upon cessation of Malaysia Airlines (MAS) flights to these destinations, said Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun.

He said he had written to the Federal Minister of Transport in November 2011 to give notice that the State Government would request for the routes and landing rights to be given to the Sabah State Government upon cessation of MAS flights to those destinations.

The State Government would then negotiate and make arrangement with another airline to take over the routes.

"I totally support Sabah Air's request for the routes and landing rights forfeited by MAS," he said here Monday.

"As I have said during the Sabah Tourism Award event on Nov 19 last year, there is a need of another regional airline to serve the specific needs of Sabah and Sarawak.

"Tourism is one of the three major industries in Sabah and the only industry which involves and employs mainly locals.

It is the industry that has the biggest potential to spur economic growth in Sabah.

"A Sabah/Sarawak designated regional airline is important to the development of the tourism industry because we are situated on an island and air connectivity is a crucial component of the travel industry.

In the case of Sabah, over 94 per cent of our tourists come to Sabah by air," he said.

He said the State Government has not been sitting idle with the impending announcement by MAS of the suspension and cancellation of some routes that would affect Sabah's interests.

"As I have stated earlier, we have had numerous meetings with the management of MAS trying to work out other options other than routes cancellation.

"A senior opposition leader claimed that even Tiger Air pulled out of Sabah as a result of MAS-Air Asia tie-up. Perhaps he needs to refresh his memory as Tiger Air stopped its service to KK (from Singapore) in October 2009, long before the current issue cropped up. Tiger Air made the decision for commercial reason as the BKI/SING (Kota Kinabalu- Singapore) route is a very competitive one," he said.

Masidi said the airline business is a very competitive industry and not that many airlines around the world were making good profits.

Many national airlines have either folded up or scaled down their operations over the years due to massive losses with among the more notable casualties being Swissair which folded up, KLM and Italia which are now only operating domestic routes.

While one of the biggest airlines in America, American Airlines filed a petition for bankruptcy late last year, some major national airlines survived and even expanded due to massive injection of cash by their cash-rich governments.

He said for Sabah, the State Government through relevant agencies would work hard and exhaust all avenues to ensure that the tourism industry continues to thrive despite the challenging situations we are in at the moment.