MAS-AirAsia framework not one-sided: minister

KUALA LUMPUR: Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Dr Awang Adek Hussin has refuted allegations that the comprehensive collaboration
framework (CCF) between Malaysian Airline System Bhd (MAS) and AirAsia Bhd is one-sided.

He told the Dewan Negara today that the CCF is part of MAS' recovery plan to improve its operations and finances and become a premier airline.

The CCF, which was entered into by MAS, AirAsia and its long-haul low-cost unit AirAsia X Sdn Bhd on Aug 9 last year, is not a merger but a strategic collaboration to explore mutually beneficial opportunities besides giving a new lease of life to MAS to carry on with its operations after having suffered heavy
losses.

"This a new approach by the government to ensure MAS' future
competitiveness, and the collaboration is seen as a way to ensure the efficient and cost-effective operations of the airlines especially MAS," he said in reply to a question from Senator Abdul Rahman Bakar.

"No collaboration will be continued if any of the parties involved finds it will lose out, in fact every field of collaboration is subject to the completion of a full anti-trust review before it can continue," he said.

The CCF not only ensures MAS remains a listed company owned by local shareholders but will also bring into MAS the experience and expertise of AirAsia, whose business model and operational efficiency has brought it profits every year from 2003 to 2011, he said.

Awang Adek said as of April 16, MAS' major shareholders are Khazanah Nasional Bhd (48.9 per cent), Tune Air Sdn Bhd (20.5 per cent) and the Employees Provident Fund (9.2 per cent). -- BERNAMA
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