Hisham: No gov't help for financially ailing MAS

 

There is no government assistance for the financially ailing MAS, says Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein.

“Is there any Malaysian government assistance to MAS? No,” he told a press conference today.

MAS was already making losses prior to the MH370 incident in March, and today the airline said the tragedy had a “dramatic impact" on its performance.

The airline posted a net loss of RM442 million in the first quarter of 2014, which is almost double of the losses in the same quarter last year, Kinibiz reported today.

Previously, Tourism Minister Nazri Abdul Aziz (left) reportedly said that the government does not know what to do with the airline, but had already ruled out injecting new capital.

Meanwhile, Hishammuddin told reporters today that the multinational search operation for MH370 has cost Malaysia “hardly anything”, because each government had been contributing resources at their own cost.

“What we have incurred is only the cost of deploying our military assets, which are already there,” he said.

'M'sia will share costs'

For the next phase of extensive underwater search operations however, he reiterated that it is only fair that Malaysia shares some of the costs rather than letting Australia foot the bill alone.

However, he said the cost that Malaysia will incur in this phase has not been estimated yet, because the search area and the assets required have yet to be determined.

He added that there are also countries that may contribute military assets at no cost, and there are also ‘third parties’ that have expressed willingness to provide financial contributions.

Hishammuddin, who is also the defence minister, declined to name these third parties when asked, but instead says the matter will be discussed when he travels to meetings in the United Arab Emirates, the Asean defence ministers’ meeting in Myanmar, and meetings in China over the next two weeks.

The Boeing 777-200ER aircraft deviated from its original course on March 8, and went missing with 239 persons onboard.

Meeting in Canberra

A meeting of an international panel of experts, including from the British satellite communications company Inmarsat, is currently taking place in Canberra to pore over all existing data to determine the aircraft’s final location more accurately, and decide on the assets needed for the search.

The two-week meeting started on Wednesday last week.

Analysis of Inmarsat’s data had been instrumental in determining that MH370’s final resting place is somewhere in the South Indian Ocean, off the coast of Australia.

When asked about the call from family members of those onboard MH370 to publicly release the raw Inmarsat data for independent analysis, Hishammuddin said that request should be directed to Inmarsat.

“As what (Joint Agency Coordination Centre chief) Angus Houston (above) said recently in Canberra, the raw data is not in the hands of MAS, Malaysia, nor Australia.

“It is in the hands of Inmarsat, so whatever issue that needs to be verified or revealed can only be done by Inmarsat itself,” he said.

Jailani to head comms committee
  
Meanwhile according to Bernama, Hishammuddin at the same press conference also said the cabinet also agreed to establish a specialised communications, coordination and media committee to be headed by Communications and Multimedia Deputy Minister Jailani Johari.   

The committee will focus on streamlining and strengthening effective communication between the three nations, families of those onboard MH370 and other related stakeholders.    

"This is to ensure the release of timely and transparent information which is consistent with our effort to improve communications related to this incident," said Hishammuddin.  

Prior to this, Malaysia had set up three ministerial committees, namely the next-of-kin committee, technical committee and deployment of assets committee to streamline the ongoing search efforts.    

Hishammuddin said since the negotiation process about further details of the operation was expected to continue for the next one to two months, Malaysia was placing a special team in Canberra who included representatives from all the committees to represent the country during the period.   

" This special team will coordinate any aspect related to the search operations between Malaysia and Australia. This team will comprise senior officials from the four respective ministerial committees."   

He said first admiral Hanafiah Hassan and colonel Hassan Lokman would represent the asset deployment committee to discuss aspects of the acquisition of assets.    

"Captain Meor Mohamad Nor Badrishah from the Civil Aviation Department will represent the technical committee to discuss data analysis and investigative matters, and Malaysian High Commissioner to Australia Zainal Abidin Ahmad will represent the next-of-kin committee to discus aspects related to next-of- kin management.      

"Two officers from the newly established communications, coordination and media committee will also be placed along with the team for media affairs," he added.