The blame for the financial woes of Malaysian Airlines, dating back well before the twin tragedies of MH370 and MH17, can be laid at the door of low cost rival Air Asia, according to a Malaysian politician.
Writing on his blog, MP Arif Sabri Abdul Aziz has accused the Malaysian government of giving Air Asia unfair preferential treatment.
"When Air Asia began to slowly kill MAS with its low fare operations, MAS went before the government asking permission to reduce its fares, but what did the government do? It refused the request," Arif wrote.
"That meant preventing MAS from competing with Air Asia, or was Air Asia given special treatment?" he added.
He said repeat requests were made to government officials to lower fares but all were denied.
Arif also questioned the proposal to reduce capacity at MAS by 30% as the new Open Sky Policy is due to take effect next year in Malaysia.
"Come next year, when the Open Sky policy is implemented in Malaysia, every other airline will virtually be a home-grown airline, therefore MAS must grow bigger to compete under the Open Sky regime."
"It must operate out of all the capital cities in ASEAN and the world like any home-grown airline—pick up passengers and fly them anywhere," added Arif.
