JUST when there was a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel on the issue of direct flights from foreign destinations to Kuching in the form of the state’s negotiation with MAS to take over its short-haul subsidiary MASwings, someone threw a spanner into the works.
The new management of MAS under the guise of Malaysian Airline Berhad (MAB) now seems to indicate that it is mulling over keeping MASwings to cater for its short-haul sector.
This unexpected turn of event was revealed by Tourism Minister Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Openg at a press conference last Thursday when he announced that talks on the takeover had slowed down.
That carefully worded announcement was a euphemism which played down the fact that the takeover bid of MASwings by the Sarawak and Sabah government might never take off.
The term short-haul is somewhat misleading as the sector covers routes within seven hours flight time to destinations like Tokyo, Bangkok, Australia and Jakarta. And so the issue of direct flights to the state looks set to simmer on.
Former state assemblyman Richard Wong revealed in a conversation years ago that their late father Datuk Amar James Wong had been accused by West Malaysian folks of being a traitor when he was the state Minister of Tourism and Environment for constantly pushing for more flights into Kuching.
Dr Mahathir may have said in public that we should “prosper thy neighbour” but it was not the case when prospering national tourism.
Flights were arranged to come through Kuala Lumpur. In those early times, MAS would not be allowed to fly say Kuching-Hong Kong or Kuching-Jakarata. It must be through KL.
Singapore Airlines was grudgingly given flights into Kuching but with many restrictions such as three flights a week, meaning that turn-around time for incoming travellers to Kuching was perhaps three nights, thus effectively cancelling out business day trippers.
Further, there had to be a minimum percentage of Singapore passengers in each flight. So, if you want it to fail, it will fail. Many a valiant airlines had tried and failed in their flights into Kuching, Dragonair and Jetstar, to name but two.
AirAsia had tried Kuching-Macau, Kuching-Jakarta and Kuching-Bali. Malaysia Airlines had tried Kuching-Hong Kong. So there had been no lack of airlines which took up the challenge.
Furthermore, federal ministries have their own objectives. Promotion of Sarawak, as well as Sabah could not bear the name Borneo. It must be stated as “Sarawak, Malaysia,” not “Sarawak Borneo.”
In pre-Petronas Twin Towers days, Borneo was better known in the world map than Malaysia. So we knowingly shot ourselves in the foot when Federal Tourism Ministry promoted “Sarawak in Malaysia.”
The recent announcement on attempts to attract flights from China with waiver of landing and parking charges, tax relief for office rentals and subsidised airport tax for China airlines is but a plot in a long-running affair.
Adding to that, the Secretary General of the Kuching Chinese General Chamber of Commerce and Industry had said: “Once direct flights are established, more business and tourism prospects can be expected.”
Is that not putting the cart before the horse? It is the business that makes the flights, not the flights that make the business?
If it was the latter, then the many flights tried out by AirAsia and Malaysia Airlines should have brought in the travellers.
Airlines definitely cannot sustain losses waiting for local businessmen to create business for them. To say creating flights will bring in the business is an over-simplification of the issues. The issue of sustainability of flights into Kuching should not be one on the shoulders of the tourism industry alone.
Do airlines only pick up tourists? Is Kuching such a great tourist destination for that industry to alone sustain the flights?
Everytime the issue of flight sustainability arises, the tourism sector is pointed at for not doing enough to attract visitors to the state. In any case, do all tourists fly into the state? The statistics say otherwise.
The Sarawak Tourism.Com statistics for January to July 2013 show total tourists coming into Sarawak at 2.41 million. Of that 31, 790 came from Singapore, 24,336 came from China, 257,941, Indonesia, 933,510 Brunei and 619,127 West Malaysia.
The 1.19 million from Brunei and Indonesia most likely came by land. Apart from China, and perhaps Singapore, other nations do not seem to be great airline potentials. What I am arguing is that other economic sectors also bear the burden of attracting passengers for the airlines.
Sarawak SMEs comprise only 6.2 per cent of the total SMEs at the national level. See “Small and Medium Enterprises in Sarawak, Trends in Development” by Annie Wong Muk Yiek. Comparative performance shows Sarawak to be lagging the other states. It becomes a circular argument when those running SMEs argue Sarawak is insular with low international marketing access and needs connection to the world. Has there been enough support from the other sectors of the economy to push for more travellers into and out of Sarawak.
Certainly, if there was no economic activity, then there would be no businessmen on the flights. We may proudly boast that we produce the best tropical hardwood timber but are we pushing value downstream to the SMEs. Rather than it being run by oligopolists, how much does the government push businesses to the small contractors, or create values with materials from the industry?
What is the entrepreneurship creation ability of our industries, not just the job creation aspect. Does it spawn more businesses?
So the ball once again falls at the feet of the Chamber of Commerce. What have they done to create businesses to create sustainability of the flights?
Yet, the Chamber of Commerce has also missed the point in asking for South China Airlines to fly to Kuching. How long can they fly to Kuching before scrapping the flight? Does our government encourage open competition in all sectors? Competition pushes creativity and encourages productivity.
It is, thus, not a question of pushing for more flights into Sarawak and, hey presto, Sarawak becomes the next great tourism destination, or the next business investment destination.
Let’s get our economy moving before we call for sustainable flights. There is a need to look at the problem in a holistic manner.