KUCHING: The Rural Air Services (RAS) subsidy agreement in Sabah and Sarawak, which is set to end at the end of this year, has been extended for another year, said Transport Minister Anthony Loke.
He said the decision to extend the RAS subsidy agreement, operated by MASwings Sdn Bhd (MASwings), was made after taking into consideration the fact that negotiations on the takeover of the company by the Sarawak government were not completed yet.
“At the Cabinet Ministers’ meeting on Tuesday (Oct 8), it was agreed to extend the RAS subsidy agreement for an interim period of one year as Sarawak and the Malaysia Aviation Group (MAG) are still in the process of taking over MASwings, so the RAS agreement will end on Dec 31, in which the previous agreement was signed about seven years ago.
“After the takeover is completed, we (Transport Ministry) will renegotiate a longer agreement and, in principle, I have stated the Federal Government’s stance that it has no problem extending the RAS subsidy of RM209 million a year,” he told a media conference after signing the Stage Bus Service Transformation (SBST) agreement here today.
He hoped that the negotiation process and takeover of MASwings by the Sarawak government could be finalised by the end of this year.
“However, it is subject to several matters because this negotiation is between Sarawak and Khazanah Nasional, which owns MAG... it does not involve my ministry because MASwings is under MAG,” he said.
Previously, Sarawak Premier Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg had said that MASwings, which will be a Sarawak-owned airline company, is scheduled to begin operations in 2025.
