KOTA KINABALU: The Malaysian Aviation Commission (Mavcom) is conducting a study on the rationalization of Rural Air Services (RAS) in Sabah and Sarawak, which will see flights either being ceased, reduced or diverted to other locations.
Mavcom executive director-general Tan Sri Dato’ Sri Abdullah bin Ahmad said the commission had been tasked to review RAS in East Malaysia which was implemented in October 2007.
“For the past 10 years, a lot of places have been connected by good roads which no longer need RAS as much as before.
“So maybe that particular route can be diverted to another place with more demand,” he said in an interview yesterday.
Besides, Abdullah said some RAS routes connected city to city, where commercial airlines such as Malaysia Airlines (MAS) and AirAsia also service at equal or even cheaper fares.
“Hence, we are doing a study to stop, reduce frequency or divert the flights to places more in need.
“If there are no new destinations to be diverted, the allocation will be used for different developments for the state,” he said.
At present, RAS flies 49 routes in East Malaysia, including 15 in Sabah, namely Kota Kinabalu (KK)-Lahad Datu, KK-Sandakan, Sandakan-Tawau, KK-Tawau, KK-Labuan, Miri-Labuan, KK-Miri, KK-Bintulu, KK-Sibu, KK-Mulu, KK-Kudat, KK-Sandakan, Kudat-Sandakan, KK-Limbang and KK-Lawas.
Abdullah said Mavcom’s proposal on rationalizing the flight routes would be presented to the state governments for consideration, adding that the study would take another several months to complete.
Mavcom was formally established on March 1 last year under the Malaysian Aviation Commission Act 2015 to regulate economic and commercial matters related to civil aviation in Malaysia. Its goal is to promote a commercially viable, consumer-oriented and resilient civil aviation industry which supports the nation’s economic growth.