The on-going issues surrounding AirAsia’s quest for the KL–Sydney route and the ensuring Malaysian Airlines’ objection is a classic case of the nation’s premier airlines' inability to innovate.

And mind you, it took the budget carrier a good long seven years battle before MAS relented and allowed the former to bag the KL–Singapore route.

It is about time that the people at MAS initiated thinking 'outside the box' in the face of ‘threats’ posed by competition. One must have the grown-up capacity to look at the bigger picture of how competition keeps us on our toes.

Further, in this age of globalisation and the blurring of trade borders coupled with the removal of trade blocks, MAS cannot continue to lobby for protection by virtue of being a national carrier.

On the contrary, it being a national icon, the onus is for MAS to promote competition in order to achieve the larger agenda of nation-building.

MAS can also learn how even the motorcar industry has successfully re-invented itself from almost complete annihilation. The success stories of companies like Fiat, Ford and others are edifying. In the face of increasing innovativeness at the marketplace, protectionist and narrow agendas cannot survive.

Rather than collide and delay, the airline can achieve greater milestones through collaboration and cooperation. Hence MAS should not repeat history by standing in the way of AirAsia’s determination to spread its wings. Or else we only stand to lose billions of ringgit for the country.

After all, as Tony Fernandes rightly pointed out in his recent radio talk show, his airlines is into nation-building as much as MAS. So why curtail the ambitious role and interests of homegrown competitors?

On the contrary, MAS must realise that AirAsia is not a competitor but serves a different segment of the marketplace with a different business strategy. And in the final analysis, we need all capable business entrepreneurs and industry leaders to build ‘1Malaysia’.