Malaysia's Minister of Transport, Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai, has announced MASwings (MY, Kota Kinabalu) will terminate six routes in Sabah and Sarawak later this year after a study showed they could now be operated on a fully commercial basis.
Speaking to The Star newspaper, Lai said a Malaysian Aviation Commission (Mavcom) study on the country's subsidized rural air services (RAS) had shown the six routes - Kota Kinabalu to each of Sandakan, Tawau, and Miri, and from Kuching to each of Miri, Kota Kinabalu, and Sibu - had reached load factors of up to 86%, enough to warrant their defunding and thus opening up to competitors. MASwings had operated the routes in partnership with Malaysia Airlines (MH, Kuala Lumpur International) and AirAsia (AK, Kuala Lumpur International).
"By next year, MASwings will stop the six routes because we have opened them up to commercial flights and MASwings cannot sustain their operations," he said. "The Government is ready to consider applications by commercial airlines to operate RAS, subject to conditions, but if we open up the RAS to commercial airlines, we cannot subsidize MASwings anymore."
RAS currently allocates annual subsidies of MYR190 million (USD42.9 million) to MASwings to run regular passenger flights to forty-nine remote towns in Sabah and Sarawak using ATR72-500 and DHC-6-400 equipment.
