Date Posted: 18 Jun 2009

Kota Kinabalu: MASwings - the Sabah and Sarawak service arm of the national carrier - has been registering 25 per cent growth in terms of passengers during the first six month this year despite the global economic downturn.

Its Managing Director, Mohd Salleh Ahmad Tabrani, said in February this year, MASwings registered one million passengers after only 17 months of operation.

Speaking at a media briefing on MASwings' current developments, Tuesday, he said since its launch in October 2007, MASwings had flown more than 60,000 passengers a month on average and operate approximately 700 flights a week.

"We are operating in 22 airports with 16 of them in Sarawak, five in Sabah and one in the Federal Territory of Labuan," he said. In terms of routes MASwings has 26 in Sarawak, four in Sabah and eight between Sabah and Sarawak.

He said MASwings was also open to the idea of operating flights within Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines - East Asean Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA).

"The matter will be discussed if there are instructions from the Transport Ministry to operate routes between Sabah, Sarawak, Brunei, Indonesia and the Philippines," he said.

Mohd Salleh also disclosed that MASwings' would be phasing out its remaining eight Fokker 50 aircraft with 10 ATR 72-500 planes by April next year.

The Fokker 50s belonged to Penerbangan Nasional Berhad (PNB), which is a subsidiary of the Transport Ministry and MASwings would be returning it one by one.

At present, four of the ATR 72-500 aircraft made in Toulouse, France, were already operational, servicing routes within and between Sabah and Sarawak.

"We are expecting the fifth to be delivered some time at the end of August or in early September. The sixth will be delivered at the end of September and the seventh by December.

"The three remaining aircraft are expected to arrive in February and March next year and we will complete our fleet of 15 turboprop aircraft by April."

The other four aircraft still in operation with MASWings are the Twin Otters. Another Twin Otter will be delivered by April next year.

According to Mohd Salleh, the F50s were no longer viable in servicing MASwings' 38 routes in the two states, which includes rural destinations.

The maintenance cost for the aircraft is also high, he added.

"MASwings is the largest unit of Malaysia Airlines' Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme. We have been entrusted by the Government to also service routes in the rural areas.

"That is why we are offering the lowest fares to our passengers to ensure everyone can afford to fly to destinations where most other airlines do not," he said.

On an average, Mohd Salleh said MASwings was offering fares from as low as RM59. On top of that, he said the On-Time Performance was at 92 per cent.

MASwings' vision was to become a five-star value carrier and consistently reliable and safe apart from cost efficient. "Because we are partially subsidised by the Government we need to ensure we don't exceed the subsidy allocated to us," he said, adding that MASwings must also make sure that it would be affordable for the people in Sabah and Sarawak.

Mohd Salleh said they wanted to make sure that they play a positive role in enhancing the social economic development and integration within Sabah and Sarawak.

(Source: Daily Express, 01 Jan 1970)