Kota Kinabalu: The State Government should prioritise solving water and electricity supply issues as well as deteriorating road conditions instead of establishing a new commercial airline in Sabah.
Sabah Umno Elections Director Jeffery Nor Mohamed questioned the need for Sabah to have its own airline while other pressing issues go ignored.
“I think this proposal is good but the time is not right. Should owning our own airline be prioritised over the repair and restoration of Sabah’s infrastructure?
“It must be remembered that the people of Sabah are now faced with the issue of water and electricity supply, which is critical and insufficient to meet the demand of the people throughout the State.
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Jeffery was referring to a statement by Sabah Air Aviation Sdn Bhd (SAASB) Chairman Kenny Chua who said Sabah is expected to have its own airline by 2024.
The Umno Putatan Division Head also questioned whether the proposal for a new airline was a reaction to Sarawak, which also intends to create its own airline, and is in the process of taking over Maswings instead of establishing a new airline.
“This means that this new company will own assets from Maswing, including permission to take off and land at the airport that currently accepts Maswing’s operations.
“If Sabah wants to create a new company, it has to start from scratch. This includes intelligently planning the framework and business capital to create a new company later,” he said.
Jeffery questioned if the company has a long-term plan to sustain the business for a long period of time.
“This includes how it will benefit Sabahans. It can be predicted that the priority route will be the Kota Kinabalu-Kuala Lumpur (KK-KL) route.
“We already know that this route is already ‘over-saturated’ due to the existence of great competition from Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, Batik Air and also MyAirlines.
“So far. we no longer need a ‘white elephant’ company that is completely dependent on government subsidies to continue their operations,” he stressed.
Jeffery opined that the current State Government has lost its focus and their goals are not necessarily helpful to Sabahans.
“Issues that should be prioritised are set aside...While irrelevant issues are focused on. I hope the State Government focuses on solving the infrastructure problem thoroughly before thinking about other proposals,” he said.
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