AsBAA Chapter Focus – Malaysia

Aida Ismail, Regional Director of Asia at HADID International Services and head of the AsBAA Malaysia Chapter, discusses some of the conditions and challenges that the market faces in the region, including what needs to happen for the Malaysia Chapter to move in a positive direction.

1. You lead the Malaysia Chapter for AsBAA and sit as one of the Governors. What’s your vision for the members in Malaysia?

My vision is for the Malaysian Chapter to be solution focused, task-oriented, be more engaging in Chapter activities and to create greater impact and transparency overall. This is consistent with my statements in the AsBAA Digest 5 May 2020.

2. What are some of the key issues facing your chapter over the past month? 

It’s not just the past month for the Chapter, but it is a prevailing situation facing BA/GA at large. In a nutshell:

1. BA/GA’s operating and regulatory environment is skewed towards Commercial Airline regulations, although AsBAA is playing a crucial role in helping to change this phenomena. This deficit has caused operational issues and it has limited growth and investment in Malaysia.
2. We need to raise our collective voices to be more visible and create greater impact.
3. We are also going to push our members and the BA/GA eco-system here to take a more regional outlook while building their strategies. A lot of industry players here operate in relative isolation but there are good (and bad) lessons that can be learned by interacting with our regional colleagues on a more regular and transparent basis.

3. How is AsBAA supporting its members through the challenges faced by the Malaysia Chapter?

1. In an effort to raise awareness of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the Business Aviation industry, AsBAA wrote letters to governments and aviation authorities in the region in April 2020. In Malaysia, the letter was addressed to The Honourable Minister of Transport Wee Ka Siong, citing problems faced by the local eco-system and proposing some counter-measures. Whilst we have received a written acknowledgement from the Ministry, there have been no committed solutions yet.

2. Probably our biggest impact for the 2020/21 period – apart from COVID-19 remedy measures – is that AsBAA has been approached by the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia (CAAM) to assist in the formulation of dedicated regulations for BA/GA, to be based on ICAO’s Annex 6 Part II (General Aviation, Fixed Wing) and Annex 6 Part III (General Aviation, Rotary). This will hopefully allow our Chapter Members and the greater BA/GA eco-system in Malaysia to start correcting deficiencies in the regulations which have been a millstone around our neck all these years. 

5. How can AsBAA members in Malaysia obtain support? 

Communicate frequently, work together on comprehensive solutions and tackle as a collective force. We believe that our government, authorities, and agencies are very encouraging now and always there to support us. We need to engage with them and explain the situation and why. The more they understand us, the better they could likely to support us. At Members’ level, each of us have our own strengths and networks and we can mobilise this. With our strong team contributing, I’m confident we can achieve a lot more. We are also happy to have the AsBAA leadership’s strong support and openness to listen to us. Thank you.