NGO moots Borneo budget airline, Idris Jala as head

June 22, 2012

Jala could staff the new airline with retrenched MAS employees, said Siah. — File picKUCHING, June 22 — The government should consider awarding another low-cost carrier licence to cater for the greater Borneo and the Asean region through a new airline called Borneo Airways, The Movement for Change, Sarawak (MoCS) leader, Francis Paul Siah, said today.

He suggested the new licence be given to the Sarawak and Sabah state governments to jointly establish an airline to serve the interests of the people in the two states.

“An airline owned by Sabah and Sarawak is long overdue,” he said in a statement.

In Parliament yesterday, Pasir Salak Member of Parliament Datuk Tajuddin Abdul Rahman urged the government to award another low-cost carrier licence to give some competition to AirAsia.

Siah said there was a ready airline boss in Sarawakian Datuk Seri Idris Jala, the minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, who could helm the new airline.

“Idris has done well in Malaysia Airlines (MAS) and he would also have a ready pool of airline staff if MAS decides to downsize its employees as part of its current restructuring exercise.

“What is left now is the political will of the two state governments to venture into the airline industry which should not be considered as an ‘unchartered territory’ now,” he added. — Bernama