A new airline is being established in Malaysia to take over smaller routes dropped by cash-strapped national carrier Malaysia Airlines (MAS), writes Nicholas Ionides.
Privately owned AirAsia, which agreed in March to take over most MAS domestic routes, says it will subcontract operation of rural air services to a new airline named Fly Asian Xpress, or FAX. The service will be subsidised by the Malaysian government and the new carrier is due to launch services on 1 August.
AirAsia says FAX will be a private company, not owned by AirAsia, although details of its ownership are not available. The carrier will be headed by Mohamed Zahari, who previously worked with MAS. AirAsia will also second one of its senior managers to the new carrier to monitor its operations.
FAX’s fleet will comprise six Fokker 50s and five de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otters, currently operated by MAS exclusively in the East Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak on Borneo.
MAS is in severe financial difficulty and is working to restructure its operations under a government-approved revival plan. Its restructuring will see it withdrawing from 99 of the 118 domestic routes on which it currently flies and closing 16 of its 32 domestic stations. AirAsia, which operates Boeing 737-300s but is changing to an Airbus A320 fleet, will be taking over many of the routes as well as some of MAS’s 737-400s.
MAS plans to cut as many as 5,000 jobs by the end of July because on 1 August its domestic operation will be withdrawing from non-trunk routes. Last month letters were sent to 18,027 MAS employees “inviting” them to take voluntary redundancy.
Source: Flight International
