KOTA KINABALU: DAP Sabah is concerned about the tussle between AirAsia and Malaysia Airport Holdings Berhad (MAHB) over the transfer of operations of the low-cost airline to terminal one of the Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA).
Its secretary, Dr Edwn Bosi, said the party is also concerned that AirAsias international and domestic passengers will be subjected to higher Passenger Services Charges (PSC) at terminal one by 103% and 50% respectively. This will be translated into higher airfares.
According to Tan Sri Tony Fernandez, the group CEO of AirAsia, his airline will not move to terminal one by August 1, 2015 and requested MAHB to sit down together to grow tourism, create more jobs, make the number of tourists to Sabah increase, and make KKIA a hub like Dubai.
Bosi said DAP Sabah understands the role of AirAsia as a low cost carrier (LCC) with an appropriate slogan now everyone can fly.
Kota Kinabalu is AirAsias second biggest hub in Malaysia with 400 domestic flights per week and 118 international flights per week. In 2014, AirAsia passenger carriage was 3.6 million or 52% of the total passenger traffic at KKIA, approximately 10,000 arriving and departing passengers per day.
DAP Sabah has learned that AirAsia will develop KKIA into a key international hub with ASEAN interconnectivity and also China, India, Indochina, Korea and Japan. It will also increase its fleet from six A320s currently to 18 A320s by 2020 and a possible base A330 aircraft for long range operations.
AirAsia is expected to grow three times bringing in about 10 million passengers by 2020.
DAP Sabah wants to see that AirAsia plays a positive role in Sabahs economic growth. Bosi reminded the government how tourism has become an important revenue earner for the country. The Sabah government has expected tourism receipts for RM6.5 billion in 2015. Unfortunately Sabah has been struck with spate of kidnappings, including murder, armed intrusion and a 5.9 Richter scale earthquake that has hampered the tourism industry.
Despite this negativity, he said AirAsia continues to be optimistic in bringing in more passengers into Sabah.
“We must not dampen AirAsias but to assist it to achieve its objectives. Sabah needs the tourism revenue more than ever to develop the country, provide mobility, meaningful employment and business opportunity to Sabahans,” said Bosi.
He said DAP Sabah acknowledges that there will be some infrastructure limitations of terminal one for a fast growing low-cost carrier like AirAsia. The party however, knows there are solutions to this tussle.
“As far as DAP Sabah is concerned we feel that MAHB, Ministry of Transport and the Sabah government should whole heartedly support the privatization of terminal one and let AirAsia develops it as a Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT). This could be a long-term permanent solution for KKIA.
“We like to remind the Sabah government not to slaughter the goose that lays the golden egg,” he added.