Thomas Latt
Monday 08th September 2014
Malay politician blames MAS woes on Air Asia
The blame for the financial woes of Malaysian
Airlines, dating back well before the twin tragedies of MH370 and MH17,
can be laid at the door of low cost rival Air Asia, according to a
Malaysian politician.
Writing on his blog, MP Arif Sabri Abdul
Aziz has accused the Malaysian government of giving Air Asia unfair
preferential treatment.
"When Air Asia began to slowly kill MAS
with its low fare operations, MAS went before the government asking
permission to reduce its fares, but what did the government do? It
refused the request," Arif wrote.
"That meant preventing MAS from competing with Air Asia, or was Air Asia given special treatment?" he added.
He said repeat requests were made to government officials to lower fares but all were denied.
Arif
also questioned the proposal to reduce capacity at MAS by 30% as the
new Open Sky Policy is due to take effect next year in Malaysia.
"Come
next year, when the Open Sky policy is implemented in Malaysia, every
other airline will virtually be a home-grown airline, therefore MAS must
grow bigger to compete under the Open Sky regime."
"It must
operate out of all the capital cities in ASEAN and the world like any
home-grown airline—pick up passengers and fly them anywhere," added
Arif.
~ an asian tour operator AATO ~