Hornbill Airways or Flying over the Skies of Sarawak

Top: AgustaWestland AB139
Bottom: EH101

KUALA LUMPUR: With Malaysia Airlines or a subsidiary is taking over the Sarawak rural air service from the fast-paced people of FAX, we wonder whether maybe its time the flight operator (who ever it is) used helicopters for some of the route.

Flights to Miri and Bintulu from or to Kuching should be flown by fixed wing planes basically because of the long distance involved.

For other routes maybe medium-size helicopters like the AgustaWestland EH-101 or the Super Puma, should be used instead of the current F-50 Fokker.

Back in the 50s, when helicopters were first introduced, it was envisioned that it would replace land-based transports for intra-city/district commuting.

It didn’t work out that way but Sarawak offers a new possibility. If the EH-101 is deemed to expensive or having too much capacity, twin-engine helicopter like the Augusta AB139 or the Bell BA609 tilt-rotor.Since helicopters have been used for years in the Sarawak Offshore industry as air taxis, deploying medium size or smaller (at least in the five ton category) helicopters for intra-city/district travel should not be that difficult.

For intra-city commuting, perhaps a regional jet like the Embraer 100-series … or the Bombardier Regional Jet to replace the Fokkers.

One must remember however, the main reason, Malaysia Airlines passed the rural air services to FAX was simple, it is simply unprofitable. So for a new operator to recapitalise the service with new planes and helicopters it quite farfetched.

The answer is simple, of course, one that had been used before. Sarawak Government in the early 90s funded together with Ekran Group the East Asia airline. The airline collapsed in 1997 following the East Asia financial crisis.

With about RM300 million, the Sarawak rural air service would be recapitalise with new planes and helicopters. The company providing would not make money, so the Sarawak and Federal governments must budget about RM50 million to subsidise the service.

It is not much money but it with proper oversight it will ensure the operator have a decent operating profit to maintain the rural air service.


What is the use of having petro-money but not used it for the sake of the people?