MAS to suspend four regional flights from Sabah in 2012

This is very bad for Sabah, especially tourism and businesses

KUALA LUMPUR — Loss-making Malaysia Airlines will suspend four regional routes from Sabah next year, apart from the eight international flights taken off its schedule in 2012.

The flag carrier said today the flights are:

• Effective January 6, 2012: Twice-weekly Kota Kinabalu-Osaka return B737 route
• Effective January 31, 2012: Thrice-weekly Kota Kinabalu-Perth return B737 route
• Effective  February 1, 2012: Four times weekly Kota Kinabalu-Haneda (Tokyo) return B737 route
• Effective February 21, 2012: Four times weekly Kota Kinabalu-Seoul return B737 route

“This suspension is until further notice and is part of our regional network consolidation involving single-aisle aircraft operations. We will be reviewing this situation in about three months time from the date of the first route suspension and will be deciding further by early April 2012,” said MAS group chief executive officer Ahmad Jauhari Yahya in a statement this evening.

He said during the suspension, MAS will take advantage of existing code-share operations with Korean Air for direct connectivity between Sabah and South Korea on the Korean carrier’s Seoul-Kota Kinabalu return direct flights.

“We will also continue offering direct international connectivity to Kota Kinabalu through our existing daily B737 flights from Hong Kong and Taipei.

In addition we will also use our existing 86 weekly flights between Sabah and KL International Airport (KLIA) to provide immediate connections for passengers who prefer full service flights between Sabah and the cities of Perth, Tokyo, and Osaka,” he added.

The airline said it will honour all forward bookings on the affected routes and will make  alternative carrier arrangements, at its own cost, to ensure minimum discomfort to passengers.

For the Sandakan-Kuala Lumpur operations, MAS said it will continue to offer the flights through Kota Kinabalu, 22 times weekly from Sandakan and 25 times weekly from Kuala Lumpur, using both its daily B737 flights and daily MASwings ATR services currently operating between Sandakan and the Sabah capital city.