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By Karen Bong
KUCHING, June 15: Sarawak has agreed in principle to take over MASwings in its plan to establish the region’s own boutique airline.
Premier of Sarawak Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg revealed that this was being planned following a proposal from the federal government.
“We have agreed in principle and now we have to do our due diligence.
“This is the latest development on (establishing) Sarawak’s boutique airline,” he told reporters in a doorstep interview at Raia Hotel and Convention Centre here today.
MASwings is the regional community airline for Sabah and Sarawak.
Abang Johari emphasised that the Sarawak government will also need to look into the need for MASwings to expand its routes beyond Borneo as the airline currently does not operate flights to Kuala Lumpur (KL).
“We want to cover the regional destinations. We want to fly to KL as well as Singapore.
“The main objective is to offer moderate (air)fare particularly within Malaysia,” he said.
On whether the Sarawak government will rename the airline or stick with the MASwings name, Abang Johari said that will be considered after the acquisition process has been completed.
“The name is secondary. What is important is we have our own outfit where we hope to provide affordable airfares,” he added.
Abang Johari also pointed out that the boutique airline will also use Sarawak-made algae-based sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).
“Later I will be visiting another algae cultivation farm because we want to upscale the production of SAF.
“I think we (Sarawak) are quite advanced in the region on biofuel based on algae, as opposed to biomass,” he explained.
Abang Johari emphasised the potential to increase algae cultivation from 1,000 acres, which could produce about 10,000 barrels of SAF per day, to 10,000 acres which could yield up to 100,000 barrels per day if successful.
“We have the technology now and we will embark on producing the biofuel,” he added. — DayakDaily
