SABAH AIR PLAN TO FAIL?

AFTER 90 days, PKR Sabah claimed that the Announcement by Sabah Air Aviation Sdn. Bhd on their 3-phase plan is just a 'Knee Jerk Reaction' as a result of the 'Public Outcry.'

PKR Supreme Council Member cum PKR Sabah Dr Roland Chia is deeply saddened that It has been over 90 days since Dec 2011 , Sabah Air has yet to apply for scheduled airline license. This was also admitted and confessed by the Minister of Transport, Datuk Kong Cho Ha himself recently during his visit to Sabah.

So it is confirmed that the announcement by AIR Aviation Sdn Bhd on their three phase plan to serve both domestic and regional routes to take over MAS suspension flights way back in December 2011 was truly just knee jerk reaction to pacify the public outcry on the announcements on the cancellation of 4 International flights by MAS to Sabah.

Why is the so called 'authorities' concern is taking such a long time to proceed with the application? Why is the Transport Ministry has not stepped in immediately to work on the transition plan before the MAS international flights were suspended to Kota Kinabalu last month? We have a Sabahan who is a Deputy Minister of Transport .

To add salt into injury, the Sabah State government has a stake in MAS through WHSSB- are they too sleeping in their job? Why these matters were not planned for a proper transition for Sabah AIR Aviation Sdn Bhd to take over smoothly. This is liken to famous saying 'Plan to Fail, Fail to Plan'.

To add more woes to the present crisis, the Transport Ministry is washing off their hands with regards to the share swap between MAS and Air Asia claiming that the ministry is just a regulatory body. Dr Roland Chia urged the Ministry not to deceive the public - knowing well that it is a fact that Khazanah Nasional - the investment arm of the government is the major shareholder of MAS

In the meantime, Malaysian Airlines System (MAS) sudden suspension of International flights to Sabah is also causing increasing complains every day. Some small & medium size tourism related operators and companies have been issuing memos to staff of possible cutback of remunerations due to the potential loss of the income as a result of this suspension.

There is definitely a drop in tourists coming to Sabah in view of the cancellation flights despite assurance from the Ministry of Tourism that there is an increase of tourism. The Ministry of Tourism should publish a breakdown of tourists classification i.e transient tourists, migrant tourists and finally the genuine tourists who travels to Sabah to create economic spin offs to the tourism industry.

Dr Roland Chia is convinced that the BN government has no intention to solve the present woes suffered by the people in Sabah with the present rhetorics and announcements by the Ministry of Transport.