SABAH AIR - PLOTTING ITS DESTINATION

Sabah Air

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Penerbangan Sabah Sdn Bhd, trading as SabahAir (Malay: Penerbangan Sabah), is an airline based in Sabah, Malaysia.

The airline was incorporated in 1975 as a private limited company wholly owned by the state government of Sabah, under the purview of the state Ministry of Finance. The board of directors is made up of the state government and private sector. The role of the board is to formulate a set of strategies and policies to achieve a common goal and vision. The Air Operator Certificate issued to SabahAir by the Malaysian Department of Civil Aviation permits it to carry out non-scheduled air services and flying services to any destinations in Malaysia.

Services

Pleasure flights can be arranged for sightseeing above neighbouring islands and beaches in Sabah, such as Gaya, Manukan and Sapi islands to visitors. Business and visiting flights are arranged for both diplomatic and private missions.

Incidents and Accidents

On June 6, 1976 11 lives including the first chief minister of Sabah Tun Fuad Stephens and some state cabinet members were lost in an air crash over Sembulan village in Kota Kinabalu district. The plane which was on its way to Kota Kinabalu airport from Labuan, crashed about 30 minutes after taking off. Until this date, no formal report appears to have been made.

On November 29, 1995 10 Sabahans and 1 Filipino worker were killed in a helicopter crash at the Samarang Seas between 10 and 11a.m. The helicopter was inflight from the old airport (currently Terminal 2 Airport) to the Petronas offshore oil rig. Some of the victims' bodies have not been found till this day. The cause of the helicopter crash was an engine operation failure.

On April 11, 2011,one of their helicopter had crashed after taking off during a bad weather at Sibu Townsquare Phase One,where the helicopter was carrying Deputy Prime Minister entourage as he was about to attend another function in conjunction of Sarawak state election,with the pilot was injured.^[1]However,the pilot succumbed to its injuries and died at Sibu Hospital, later that day

As of January 2011 the SabahAir fleet includes  :

Aircraft	Number in Service	Number on Order	Number of Seats
GAF N22B Nomad	1	-	10
Bell 206B Jet Ranger helicopter	6	-	4
Bell 206L3/L4 Long Ranger III/IV helicopter	2	-	6
Beechcraft King Air 200	1	-	9
Agusta 109 Grand	1	-	6
AS 355NP	1	-	5

]

DEVELOPMENT FOR REGIONAL AIRLINES

MASwings can benefit from ‘link-ups’ with private sector

by by Justin Yap justinyap@theborneopost.com. Posted on December 14, 2011, Wednesday

KUCHING: MASwings Sdn Bhd (MASwings) should explore ‘link-up’ opportunities with the private sector in the Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-the Philippines East Asean Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) region.

NEW TERRITORY: MASwings can create a niche in the hotly contested air routes competition if it takes into account other private sector participation startegies. Photo shows passengers boarding a MASwings aircraft .

Industry sources observed that the recent annoucements that MASWings was gearing itself to venture into the BIMP-EAGA routes as early as February 2012 would be far more successful if the rural service airline paid attention to further ‘tie-ups’ with third parties.

They explained that for long-term sustainability, a common package among the destinations in the regions should be established, and that required the involvement of the private sector in all fields such as travel agencies, hotel associations and so on.

“When common packages are in place, only then can joint promotion and marketing strategies be explored between the region. In order to retain viable routes, study as well as research should be done within the private sector too,” BIMP-EAGA Tourism Council Malaysia chairman Datuk Wee Hong Seng told The Borneo Post.

He further pointed out that tourism is a private sector driven initiative. “The private sector plays a vital role in contributing to the country’s economy and also helps to maintain the sustainability of the airline industry.”

“Within the BIMP-EAGA region, there is a massive population base of more than 60 million, covering an area of 1.56 million square kilometres. Considering the vast tracks of unexplored routes, it augurs well for the region to et cracking?and connect the dots,” he stressed.

Within the region, there existed a memorandum of understanding on ‘Expansion of Air Linkages’ between the governments of BIMP-EAGA, which was signed back in January 2007. It granted the Fifth Freedom Traffic Right (FFTR) airports in the EAGA countries to cater for EAGA carriers.

The FFTR arrangements allowed an air carrier of one EAGA member country to pick up traffic in the territory of the other EAGA member country and carry it to a third EAGA member country as part of the service to/from the home country of the operating carrier.

“Technically the MoU should propel BIMP-EAGA air services into a whole new scenario – an ‘open sky’ era, however that has not yet materialised. With the support given from the region, MASwings should be able to create a niche in the hotly contested air routes competition provided it takes into account other private sector participation startegies,” said Wee.

Currently, MASwings owns 10 ATR 72-500s and four DHC-6 Twin Otters. It was required to acquire at least four jetliners in order to fulfill the requirement of being a regional airline. Speculations were rife that MASwings may be acquiring the 737-800s aircraft from one of its sister companies Firefly under MAS.

Moving forward, MASwings is set to hold its official ‘BIMP-EAGA Operations’ media briefing in Sabah today, revealing its business expansion to BIMP-EAGA which was scheduled to take effect in February 2012.

While MASwings is endeavouring to capitalise on the open sky policy, other regional players are also looking at the sub-regional landscape with a magnifying glass to further make their presence felt as early players.

AirAsia co-founder and chief executive officer Tan Sri Tony Fernandes recently highlighted to The Borneo Post the company plans to commence a Kuching-Bangkok route, which was currently at the aiting for approval?stage. He was also looking at restarting the Kuching-Jakarta route.

On the international front, low-cost carrier Cebu Pacific Air of the Philippines also expressed its interest to expand its international routes in Malaysia by making Kuching its next stop after Kuala Lumpur and Kota Kinabalu.

Industry sources and analysts concurred that With the growing connectivity demand within the region, the aviation landscape was transforming into a hive of activity and more announcements should be forthcoming in the near future.

ASEAN - Role

Time for Asean to grow some teeth

By Steven CM Wong
Steve@isis.org.my | 

09 December 2011 | 

Unqualified non-interference is hampering the grouping

THE Arab League is nothing at all like Asean. Nor is the African Union for that matter. These three regional organisations exist in different places, different political circumstances and are subject to entirely different internal dynamics and processes.

In one important respect, however, they are the same. They have the goal of establishing regional peace and stability. Like it or not, this means not just ensuring peace and stability among member states but, on occasion, also within them.

Last week, the Arab League commanded world headlines when it announced sanctions on one of its senior members, Syria. The sanctions included suspension of commercial flights, freezing of Syrian government assets, cessation of dealings with the Syrian central bank and a travel ban by senior officials.

No doubt, some members of the Arab League would be feeling  uncomfortable. Raising sanctions against Syria also raises the possibility of sanctions taken against them if similar events were to happen.

Nevertheless, with the world's attention focused on the blood-letting in Syria, a regional response was demanded. And respond the Arab League did.

The African Union (AU), which the ordinary Asean citizen does not think much of, let alone highly,  is even more dominant. Its objectives explicitly promote democracy, good governance and human rights and, in a day-and-night contrast to Asean, it has the legal powers to back this up. More importantly, it uses them.

The AU has deployed peacekeeping forces to member states seven times since 2003. Its roles in South Africa, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Sudan and Somalia, and its influence after last year's Ghanaian elections, have been tangible efforts to realise its goals. It has also suspended members for wilful breaches of membership.

So is Asean, as primarily a talk shop, being surpassed by these regional organisations? Will it lose esteem with its non- or half-hearted dealing with problems?

Asean's conflict-avoidance norms are famously built into its DNA. These were  designed to ensure that bigger and more powerful members do not bully smaller ones into submission.

This is fair, especially if you happen to be one of these smaller member states. But the unqualified policy of non-interference also makes the association voiceless and hapless in the affairs of their members.

Yet the members of the Arab League or the African Union are not any more united or, conversely, less disunited, than Asean. It is nevertheless clear that the latter two have a higher level of ambition and preparedness to adopt strong rule-based actions.

Some argue that Asean, unlike the Arab League and the African Union, prefers to work "behind the scenes". But this assumes that the League and the Union do not also do so.

This is inconceivable. As Asean chair, Indonesian attempts to mediate in the Thai-Cambodian conflict were certainly commendable but ultimately inconclusive.

At the moment, few would be convinced, notwithstanding the the Asean Charter and the ambitious Asean Political Security Community Blueprint, that members could or would take action. The goals are there but not the means to enforce them.

In the aforesaid blueprint, a great deal of emphasis is placed on the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation. But there are no provisions to deal with members who, for one reason or another, simply refuse to abide by their legal treaty obligations.

The well-known lack of a strong Asean Secretariat inhibits quick and unequivocal responses. The Asean secretary-general will, of course, attempt to use his  good offices to attempt to mediate but apart from moral suasion will be able to do little without carrots or sticks.

If members reject the secretary-general's efforts, it will be up to leaders to decide. But whether they will be prepared to involve themselves in complex and controversial issues is an open question. Going by long experience, the prospects do not seem even fair.

The widening gap in how Asean operates vis-a-vis other regional institutions is something that should spark  discussions of whether its continued lack of ambition and boldness to grow teeth is warranted.

Asean's norms need to evolve and they are evolving. The pace of this evolution, however, appears to be out of sync with global developments.