Local aviation nears collapse as only 38 of 90 airplanes are active

• Air Peace, Arik, Azman operate at 38.8% fleet capacity
• Hurdles for air travellers as over 30 per cent are underserved
• Operators blame lack of foreign exchange for maintenance
• Sirika’s Aviation Roadmap fails to deliver on promises seven years on
• Industry needs new policy direction to survive, stakeholders say
• Only four of 22 airports are viable, turn others to shopping malls, Bernard tells FG

Beyond the withdrawal of services by two scheduled carriers, the entire local aviation sector may be in for a shutdown of operations over steady loss of fleet capacity that has made schedule reliability near impossible.

Findings by The Guardian showed that the eight active airlines are operating a cumulative 38.77 per cent fleet capacity, with a total of 60 out of 98 listed aeroplanes grounded, pending the availability of foreign exchange earnings to defray maintenance cost.