Plans for a single multinational airline to operate within the Asean region appear to be falling by the wayside with the planned 1 January launch of a new Malaysian operator, Saeaga Airlines.
The newcomer is a joint venture between Malaysia's Ekran Air Services (20 per cent) and the governments of the Malaysian states of Sarawak and Sabah (40 per cent each). It will initially fly two Dash 8s and a Canadair Regional Jet and plans to add two more Dash 8s and three further CRJs by late 1996.
Saeaga will operate to 13 destinations within Malaysia and has rights to eight points in the Philippines and Indonesia. It wants to develop the resort centre of Kota Kinabalu in Sarawak as a major regional hub. It launches with paid up capital of US$80 million but executive chairman Tan Sri Ting Pek Khiing says this will be increased to US$200 million.
Development of air routes within the Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, East Asian Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) was originally to have involved the setting up of a joint airline operating on a network of primary and secondary destinations within the region. It was envisioned that Asean flag carriers would contribute aircraft, but this plan appears to have collapsed.
Instead, the growth area is seeing the emergence of several separate airlines such as Saeaga, alongside established domestic operators like Indonesia's Bouraq.
Royal Brunei led efforts to get the joint airline concept off the ground. It purchased two Fokker 50s earlier this year and will take delivery of another two in 1996, all for BIMP-EAGA destinations.
Tom Ballantyne
Source: Airline Business
