Monday, October 10, 2011

Sarawak regional airline solution

KUCHING: The state is working on a solution to the flight woes faced by Sarawak in the wake of the route rationalisation exercise by MAS and AirAsia.

Tourism Minister Datuk Amar Abang Johari said he was in discussions on a possible option to resolve the situation.

However, he said he could not reveal any details yet as the talks were confidential and involved “a very important player”.

“We are still in the process of preparing our next move. Hopefully, we may get good news but I can’t reveal at the moment what we’re going to do, except that we feel that the state is looking into the possibility of a regional airline.

“How it will be done, let us do it. We are tackling the problem,” he told reporters at the Borneo International Beads Conference’s gala dinner on Saturday night.

Johari was asked to comment on the route rationalisation following the share swap between MAS and AirAsia, which had led to reduced flight frequencies to Sarawak.

The state’s tourism and hotel sectors had raised concerns over the matter as reduced flights meant fewer visitor arrivals.

In addition, they were concerned that abrupt flight cancellations and lack of communication from the airlines on their plans were causing uncertainty in the industry.

Earlier this week, the Sarawak Tourism Federation and other industry players submitted three memoranda expressing their concerns to MAS, the state government and the Federal Government.

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