Mr Shane Nollan, the Acting Commercial Director of MAS and also of PlaneConsult must be held responsible for ripping off the Government of Malaysia with its new fares structure for purchasing of flight tickets via Air Transport Warrant effective 16-4-2012.
As of 16-4-2012, MAS increased its fares charged to the Government via Air Transport Warrant are as follows:
KL/London (LHR) First Class RM42,000 Business Class RM36,000
KL/Sydney (SYD) First Class RM25,000 Business Class RM19,000
The IATA fare prices for these two sectors are as follows:
KL/London First Class RM37,396 Business Class RM26,885
KL/Sydney First Class RM17, 103 Business Class RM16,318
If the Government departments were to buy flight ticket via LOCAL ORDER then the Government needs not pay for exorbitant prices under the Air Transport Warrant.
The difference between the fares under Air Transport Warrant and Local Order for KL / London First Class is RM4,604 and Business Class RM9,115.
The difference between the fares under Air Transport Warrant and Local Order for KL / Sydney First Class is RM7,897 and Business Class RM2,682.
If the Government departments were to buy the same flight ticket via LOCAL ORDER then the Government needs not pay for exorbitant price differences under the Air Transport Warrant and Local Order.
Why must the fares for Government and ordinary Malaysians had to be any different?
Was this another attempt to stifle competition between MAS and AirAsia X Sdn Bhd for the KL / Sydney route?
The “ripping off” the Government by the top management of MAS in such a stupid way should not be tolerated by the Government. The Ministry of Finance should immediately instruct all government departments to immediately stop buying plane tickets from MAS by way of Air Transport Warrant but Local Order, where the department can buy plane tickets based on IATA prices.
How could MAS be turnaround with the obvious incompetence of its Acting Commercial Director, Mr Shane Nollan from PlaneConsult and who is also tainted with conflict of interest?
On 16-1-2012 En Ahamd Jauhari Yahaya (AJ) and En Mohammed Rashdan Yusof aka Danny (Rashdan) saw it fit to also appoint PlaneConsult as the consultant for MAS. PlaneConsult has no or little experience in premier airlines. Mr Connor McCarthy is the Chairman of PlaneConsult and he is also the co-founder and director of AirAsia. PlaneConsult is also the consultant for AirAsia and AAX, in HERE & HERE. It must also be noted that all invoices from PlaneConsult to MAS were marked for the attention of Rashdan, the Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar’s most trusted crony.
Now let us compare the above price structure and ridiculously low prices of fare that MAS charges to AAX under the Re-accommodation Agreement dated 28-3-2012:
KL / London Business Class RM4,911
London / KL / Sydney Business Class RM7,299
The price difference based on IATA fare and AAX special fare for Business Class KL / London is RM19,874.
The very “special” fares charged by MAS to AAX for uplifting its 35,000 passengers was a joke! It would also appear that MAS is a charitable organization and MAS is definitely not BLEEDING or a “SICK PATIENT”. For AAX “Special Fares” please read in HERE, HERE,HERE.
The Cabinet has approved an additional KL/Sydney route to MAS from July 2012 to 2013 and yet the present top management saw it fit to give up this additional route to AAX. Surely, the top management is going to tell us that this was part of its stupid “Cost Cutting” exercise.