NEW DESTINATIONS: (From left) Nawawi, MASwing’s head of commercial, Zainuddin Mohamed and the carrier’s Sabah regional manager Shauqi Ahmad, after unveiling the buntings announcing the new routes.
KOTA KINABALU: MASwings is expanding its services into the Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East Asean Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) in February next year.
Its managing director Datuk Capt. Mohd Nawawi Awang said the direct air links would kick off on February 1, 2012 with MASwing’s Kota Kinabalu-Bandar Seri Begawan (Brunei) and Kuching-Bandar Seri Begawan inaugural flights.
Speaking at the unveiling of MASwing’s business expansion into BIMP-EAGA here yesterday, Nawawi disclosed that the Kuching-Pontianak (West Kalimantan) flight would commence on February 6, while the Kota Kinabalu-Tawau-Tarakan (South Kalimantan) flight would start on February 13.
All the flights would be operated using MASwing’s ATR72-500 aircrafts which can seat about 72 passengers each.
These are the first three destinations MASwings would operate in the BIMP-EAGA sector and there are plans for the airline to expand into Philippines, he added.
The BIMP-EAGA was established in 1994 as a collaborative initiative by Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, all of which are Asean member nations.
“The Kota Kinabalu-Bandar Seri Begawan is currently only served by Royal Brunei Airlines (RBA). Once MASwings flight commences, our frequency will be twice daily or 14 times a week,” he said adding that the flight duration is about 35 minutes.
There are no airlines serving the Kuching-Bandar Seri Begawan sector as RBA had just stopped flying the route a few months ago, he said and disclosed that MASwings would be doing the 1:40 minutes flight three times a week.
According to Mohd Nawawi, the Kuching-Pontianak flight which starts on February 6 will be on a daily basis while the Tawau –Tarakan flight will be three times weekly.
“I would like to accord MASwing’s appreciation to the state government and tourism officers for making this happen. This is just our first phase of expansion into BIMP-EAGA and if we are successful we can ask our parent company for better equipment so we can service sectors which take longer flight duration,” he said.
“MASwings sees that both Sabah and Sarawak have great potential, especially when tourism and nature is concerned, and there are a lot of people travelling to the two states for either education or health services,” he said.
Mohd Nawawi also gave his assurance that the new routes would not affect its current operations and in fact help reduce government subsidy as the airline’s foray into BIMP-EAGA is a new business entity for it.
MASwings, he pointed out has 10 units of the ATR72-500 and therefore has the capacity to venture into the new sector.
He also said that MASwings Rural Air Services’ (RAS) contract in Sabah and Sarawak will end 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 is a bonus for us but if not, we can go on ourselves,” Mohd Nawawi said, adding that MASwings would operate the new routes for one year and its further expansion would depend on how successful the venture was.
According to him, promotional fares would be available to the public beginning the first week of January and the public could expect to be able to purchase the fares at 50 per cent cheaper than current fares offered by other airlines.
MASwings, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Malaysia Airlines Systems Bhd (MAS), currently serves Sabah and Sarawak.
Since its inception in 2007, MASwings has flown to over 20 destinations in East Malaysia with some 940 flights weekly compared to 450 flights when it first started.