I was amused when I first read about the solution to rid MAS of its obligation to fly Malaysians locally. AirAsia will now take over those unprofitable routes, on the grounds that they can turn a profit from it. AirAsia should be accorded the status of national airline (at the very least) if they can achieve such a social obligation without government subsidies (maybe they prefer a tax break for that).

I can't quite understand how those domestic routes contributed to MAS' losses given that they were reimbursed for it by the government. The second part of this whole restructuring effort is that MAS would focus on its international routes. They would probably place more effort in attracting international passengers, given that we locals are now taking less foreign trips, in line with Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak's advice of changing our lifestyle after the oil price hike.

Now that MAS gets to keep the profitable local routes and focus on its international routes, I see no reason why they should still insist on getting the government to cover further losses since they are no longer in the business of serving the nation.

What I foresee is that we, as locals, will end up paying higher fares for those selected local MAS-served destinations such as to Penang, Kuching, etc, since we do not have the choice of flying the cheaper AirAsia anymore.

At that thought, I am no longer amused. I am getting angry at being shortchanged in my own country, yet again. So let us treat them like the private entity they really are and stop all this nonsense about saving our national air carrier, which they would no longer are.