Nod for airline to fly Ipoh-Singapore route

IPOH: The Cabinet has approved the application of a local airline to operate the Ipoh-Singapore sector, Transport Minister Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat said.
Ong, however, would not disclose the name of the airline until it was certain the company could sustain its services.
He added that the airline would fly from the Sultan Azlan Shah Airport here as plans for a new airport was still far from sight.
“The airline wrote to us and we considered and processed the application with due diligence.
“But at the end of the day, it is their decision to determine whether or not it is sustainable,” he told reporters after meeting Perak MCA grassroots leaders here yesterday.
Ong noted that people had in the past pounced on the ministry and accused it of stopping the services of AirAsia when the airline discontinued its flights from here.
“We did not. That was a business decision,” he said.
“More often than not, people do not seem to understand that the continuity of any air service depends largely on the business decision made by the relevant airlines and not the ministry.
“The ministry has the power to decide or to grant the air rights of any particular sector to an airline but it doesn’t mean that we are there to guarantee them profits.”
On his earlier briefing, the MCA president revealed that many grassroots leaders were very concerned about the process for transforming the party.
Ong said they also discussed the economy and education.
He said special focus was paid to the economic woes of the people and the initiatives that had been and would be taken by the MCA.
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/3/29/nation/3583986&sec=nation