GIVING IT A GO: Deputy Minister of Transport Malaysia Datuk Abdul Rahim Bakri (second right), Assistant Minister of Tourism Sarawak Datuk Haji Talib Zulpilip (far right), Nawawi (second left) as well as Kalimantan government officials officiating the Kuching-Pontianak trip at Mercure Hotel in Pontianak recently.
PONTIANAK, West Kalimantan: MASwings Sdn Bhd (MASwings) eyes for further expansion in the Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-the Philippines East Asean Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) region after successfully pinpointing Pontianak as its second international destination.
The new Kuching-Pontianak route was part of the first phase of its BIMP-EAGA’s expansion plan after Brunei Darussalam.
The Kuching-Pontianak route was seen as one of the revenue generator for MASwings as it recorded daily seats load factor of almost 100 per cent since its launch on Feb 6, 2012.
Foraying into Indonesia, the regional airline would be spreading its ‘wings’ to another new region in the country, realising the Tawau-Tarakan route of East Kalimantan, today.
The route was expected to produce positive returns for the company going forward.
MASwings chief executive officer Datuk Capt Mohd Nawawi Awang told The Borneo Post that if the first phase of the BIMP-EAGA expansion plan took off successfully, the company would then unleash its second masterplan probably by mid-year.
“We are looking seriously into Balikpapan and Makassar at the moment as both of this destinations can bring great potential to us as well as to the economy,” he said during the exclusive interview.
He further pointed out that its current 10 units of ATR 72-500 aircraft had been fully utilised to serve the three new international destinations as well as the rural areas of both Sarawak and Sabah.
In order to meet upcoming demand, MASwings was currently in discussion with its parent company to add another two ATR 72-500 aircraft on the commercial aspect of MASwings.
“So with that, we could probably mount to Balikpapan. However, Kota Kinabalu-Balikpapan route is a bit too far for ATR and same goes to Makassar.
“We might need a bigger type of aircraft to serve these routes. It can be any regional jet which are already available in the market such as Bombardier or any ‘narrow-body’ jet like Boeing 737-400/800 and even A320/319. It all depends on the current flight sustainability and how successful it is,” he stressed.
Nawawi also revealed that MASwings was eyeing for Davao in the Philippines as its next international destination. However, this route would only be realised if the company acquired a regional jet as the flight to Davao would be beyond two hours time frame.
According to Nawawi, MASwings Rural Air Services’ (RAS) contract in Sabah and Sarawak would expire in 2017, so expanding to the BIMP-EAGA region is part and parcel of positioning the company in the event that the contract is not renewed.
“If the government continues the RAS contract, it would be a bonus for us, but if not, we can go on ourselves,” he said, adding that MASwings would operate the new routes for one year and its further expansion would depend on how successful the venture was.
When asked how much were the investment worth, he said, “The expansion into BIMP-EAGA is totally our commercial entity for MASwings. We are doing it on our own unlike the RAS where it got assistance from the government. The expansion will be on our own profit and loss account — it’s a two different account all together.”
“We want to focus on what we are doing first before moving to the next step. If we manage to ‘take off’ without any obstacles, we will then implement the things we have on mind,” he added.
MASwings has also recently undergone its fleet renewal programme where it replaced the aging Fokker 50 aircraft with the state-of-the-art ATR75-500 series aircraft. Nawawi pointed out that ATR was an environmentally friendly aircraft with less carbon emission and noice reduction.
The ATR is also configured to 68 seats in order to allow for more leg room and aisle space, different from any other similar category aircraft operation.
Since its inception in 2007, MASwings had marked an increase of passengers from 45,000 per month in 2007 to 130,000 per month this year, representing a three-fold increase or equivalent to a 300-per cent hike. It currently operates more than 950 flights per week.