Friday, June 09, 2006

Sarawak's rural air services halted by MAS due to 'practical reasons'

By Magdalene Rogers

KUCHING - The Malaysia Airlines (MAS) which has been criticised for halting the Rural Air Services (RAS) particularly to renowned destination such as Mulu was acting on "practical reasons."

A MAS employee, who prefers to remain anonymous, told the Bulletin that the move by MAS in stopping the RAS was not purely out of losing profits but also for "practical reasons such as the weather that if it rains heavily, the airstrip would be flooded."

"Therefore, to say that MAS is doing this and this because it is losing money is not really the factor here. Moreover, there are times when there are not sufficient passengers for the destination," she said.

Meanwhile, it was reported that some 31,000 cancellations have been recorded by travellers to destinations in Sarawak.

Sarawak Tourism Board (STB) chief executive officer Gracie Geikie said that the figure was a cause of alarm to the travel industry here.

She added that, nonetheless, STB is issuing travel advisory to all inbound tour operators and their representatives overseas "to inform them that all previous rural flight bookings made through them through MAS would be honoured."

This was made possible as all RAS flights would be taken over by FAX airlines seven weeks ahead of schedule on next Monday.

Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin

No comments: