Open skies pacts: AirAsia wants similar rights as MAS

BUDGET carrier AirAsia Bhd wants to be granted similar rights as national carrier Malaysia Airlines (MAS) in future open skies pacts between Malaysia and other countries.

An open skies agreement gives carriers of both countries unlimited rights to fly between each other's borders.

"The current mindset is that MAS, being the country's national carrier, should automatically be given more rights than AirAsia or should be protected. Why? We have done more for the country than MAS has done in the last three years," AirAsia group chief executive officer Datuk Tony Fernandes told Business Times in a phone interview yesterday.

"We have carried more passengers, invested more in promoting Malaysia and sponsored Manchester United, Formula One's Williams team and professional referees in English soccer.

"We have also won countless awards and recognition, ordered 175 A320 planes, beat Singapore in the low-cost carrier market, taking Malaysia to another level," he said.

"We are not asking for more rights than MAS, but 50 per cent ... for equality within the aviation sector," he added.

AirAsia is seeking to level the playing field, following the launch of MAS' "Everyday Low Fares" campaign to all domestic destinations on Monday.

AirAsia is expected to launch its own campaign early next week, which would see it lowering its fares further.

Apart from equal rights, the carrier also wants to increase its current two daily flight frequencies between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore with another six flights per day.

It also seeks to fly from Singapore to other destinations in Malaysia such as Kota Kinabalu, Kuching and Penang.

"Don't hold us back. You can let the consumers choose (by having two choices - MAS and AirAsia), but you must also allow us to maximise our profits by granting us the Singapore-Malaysia routes, which will also lead to much lower fares," he added.

Fernandes said while AirAsia is aware that it is free to fly to countries such as the US, the United Arab Emirates, New Zealand, Taiwan, Maldives, the UK, Germany and the Scandinavian countries - markets which Malaysia has an open skies agreement with, these routes are more suited to its long-haul LCC AirAsia X.

"AirAsia's current fleet of A320s would not work beyond three to four hours' range. Anyway, why isn't MAS operating those routes if they (the company) are profitable?" he asked.

Still, the AirAsia group is expected to take on MAS managing director and CEO Datuk Seri Idris Jala's suggestion to fly to these countries with its AirAsia X brand.

Meanwhile, in an online circular to its customers yesterday, AirAsia maintained that its current fares are still the lowest in Malaysia.