Council supports MASwings’ Sarawak-Brunei initiative

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KUCHING: BIMP-EAGA Malaysia Tourism Council is keen to see MASwings ply the Sarawak-Brunei route because the oil-rich sultanate could serve as another gateway into the state.

Its chairman Datuk Wee Hong Seng said the council would write to the Ministry of Transport to urge it to give MASwings the green light to start this service.

“I do not see any reason for not approving it since MASwings wants to fly the route,” he told reporters after opening the celebration of Pa Sien Kung’s birthday at King’s Centre here on Saturday.

The former president of Sarawak Tourism Federation asserted that any connectivity to the state “is a plus point” for the tourism market.

“If MASwings is willing to fly, why hold it back? It is not difficult for the Ministry of Transport to sort things out if the issue is for MASwings (to only) operate rural air services.

“I do not think it has something to do with the open sky policy. What matters is that over 100 seats can be easily filled if MASwings serves the route.”

Wee said the council supported MASwings to  fly not only Kuching-Brunei but also Kuching-Jakarta and Kota Kinabalu-Brunei.

If this materialised, it would certainly enhance connectivity in the BIMP-EAGA region.

Responding to the possibility of Firefly terminating services in Sarawak and Sabah, he said the swapping of shares between Malaysia Airlines (MAS) and AirAsia should not result in a monopoly.

“Monopoly will hurt the industry and we definitely do not want to see this happening. Whatever the commercial deal is should not lead to monopoly of services.”

To help eradicate monopoly of the market, Wee queried the implementation of the Competition Act 2010.
“The Competition Act passed in Parliament last year is to promote a competitive market environment in a way to curb monopoly. And what’s the latest about this act?”

He said what concerned consumers most would be reasonable and competitive fare prices.

“It is okay for them to swap shares because what we care is that AirAsia still offers low-cost tickets, MAS continues to have special offers and Firefly offer zero fares.”