KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia Airlines will only fly to 19 domestic destinations, including all state capitals with airports except Ipoh, under a scheme to share local flights with AirAsia.
Besides these 19 domestic destinations, AirAsia will also service 96 other local routes, which are now termed as non-trunk domestic routes.
These flights are expected to commence on Aug 1.
MAS, however, is not allowed to sell its tickets at a discount and the price must be not less than the “full economy fare.”
The Government said the definition of a domestic trunk route was made after considering the joint report submitted by the two airlines.
“The definition of trunk routes is based on two criteria – international connectivity and business traffic,” said a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office late yesterday.
The statement said that the KLIA, Kuching and Kota Kinabalu airports would be the main hubs for the trunk routes.
The Government, as part of its rationalisation of the domestic air services sector, had given the two airlines until yesterday to come to an agreement on the definition.
On March 16, the Government announced that both MAS and AirAsia would be allowed to fly major domestic routes.
The Prime Minister’s Department reiterated yesterday that MAS would provide the premium service and the budget airline, the low-cost domestic trunk services.
The Government also decided that both companies would be given the flexibility to decide on the frequency of flights, capacity distribution, type of aircraft and airfare under the supervision of the Transport Ministry.
“MAS must restructure its domestic operations by then and AirAsia must have built up capability to operate all domestic routes, including ensuring connectivity where MAS does not fly to.
“The Government will offer a fitting compensation for the domestic business unbundling agreement between MAS and Penerbangan Malaysia Berhad,” the statement said, adding that profit and loss for MAS’ domestic operations is now its own responsibility.
Stating that neither MAS nor AirAsia would be given a subsidy to operate their domestic operations, the Government would, however, pay the low-cost carrier to operate social routes like the rural air services in Sabah and Sarawak.
The Prime Minister’s Office also revealed that the two airlines were negotiating an agreement for AirAsia’s entire fleet of aircraft to be maintained by the MAS Engineering Unit.
At present, AirAsia’s planes are being serviced in Singapore.
“The Government hopes that this rationalisation process will mean greater cooperation between MAS and AirAsia not only on the domestic sector but also on the regional and international levels.”
MAS managing director Idris Jala said the national carrier analysed all its domestic routes and identified the 19 routes as key to ensuring its future success.
“We are confident that we will be able to work closely with AirAsia to ensure that connectivity and interlinking issues are addressed in a timely manner and that international passenger traffic in and out of Kuala Lumpur will not be affected,” he said.
AirAsia group chief executive officer Datuk Tony Fernandes said the long-awaited decision would finally enable the two airlines to set their differences aside and move forward to bring their services closer to the people.
Source: The Star
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