Call for direct Labuan air link to S'kan and Tawau
Published on: Wednesday, December 31, 2014
LABUAN:
ADVERTISEMENT
The Labuan Chinese Chamber of Commerce (LCCC) wants MASwings to re-schedule its first flight out from here to Kota Kinabalu (KK) earlier by two hours and also to consider a direct link to the East Coast towns of Tawau and Sandakan to boost trade links between the two sectors.Its Chairman, Datuk Wong Kii Yii, said the first MASwings flight from here to KK about 9am was not well timed. "Most of us would prefer the departure to be around 7.30am so that we can arrive in KK early and have a full day to conduct our businesses and return by night flight. Arriving in KK early would also be convenient for those seeking connections from KK to other domestic or foreign destinations," he said.
ADVERTISEMENT
Wong also proposed that the airline try out a direct flight from Tawau and Sandakan to here.He said Labuan never had a direct air link with the well-populated towns of Tawau and Sandakan. He believed that many in the two districts were deterred from travelling here and benefit from Labuan's free-port status because of the inconvenience of having no direct air connection.He said more people from the peninsula visited the island than from Tawau and Sandakan.
ADVERTISEMENT
"But if there is a convenient and affordable connection in place, more people from the East Coast will be interested to holiday here."Wong said Labuan already has a classed airport and travellers from the East Coast of Sabah could land here and seek connections to Kuala Lumpur or Sarawak or return via ro-ro ferries. He noted that MASwings had "experimented" new routes such as from Kuching to Bandar Seri Begawan via Miri and more lately operated a twice-weekly flight from KK to Palawan in the Philippines, but none of these services lasted for more than a year. "So what is wrong in trying out the Tawau/Sandakan-Labuan route?" asked Wong.Since Labuan's new airport was built at a cost of RM500 million and opened in 1999 and later upgraded, it has hardly been successful in luring international flights, he said, adding that even an air link to Bandar Seri Begawan had been suspended for good.Though classified as an "international" airport, the departures and arrivals were mostly to KK, KL and Miri. The Transport Ministry had once announced that an exclusive "open sky" status would be accorded to Labuan to enable chartered direct passenger flights to the island. "It is not known whether the policy was implemented or not but so far, only chartered cargo flights are landing here with goods consigned to the oil and gas sector," said Wong.In contrast, in the past Labuan was an air travel hub for the region. After the War when Allied troops put a makeshift wooden airport, it served as the regional headquarters for Malaysia Airways and Borneo Airways in 1963.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
Daily Express Malaysia
