IPOH, Dec 20 — The state government announced that the flight service from Ipoh to Guangzhou, China, operated by Scanda Sky with the cooperation of Malaysia Airlines Bhd (MAS), has officially stopped on December 18, 2019.

Perak Tourism, Arts and Culture committee chairman Tan Kar Hing said the decision to stop the operation was agreed by both parties after failing to reach an agreement in the technical and commercial aspects.

"Both parties had made the decision to terminate the contract agreement signed on May 7 this year.

"Several factors contributed to this decision including commercial and technical aspects. For example, the flight that was able to accommodate 120 passengers was limited to 50 passengers only,” he said at a press conference at the state secretariat building here, today.

On November 27, 2019, Scanda Sky launched its inaugural flight from the Sultan Azlan Shah Airport (LTSAS) here to Guangzhou with 40 passengers.

Tan said even though the committee was disappointed with the termination of the flight operations, it did not bring any negative implications to the state government in the financial aspect.

"Scanda Sky and MAS also did not receive any form of subsidy from the state government to complete the service,” he said.

Apart from that, he said, Scanda Sky is currently in the process of looking for joint ventures with a few companies to ensure the flights to Guangzhou would be continued.

"We welcome the efforts taken by Scanda Sky and hoped it will be fruitful soon to fulfil the wish of the people in the state, besides further stimulating the state economy,” he said.

Meanwhile, Tan said the state government was also planning to have more new routes to increase the number of tourists to Perak.

"To date, we are working on flights from Subang to Ipoh and Subang to Pulau Pangkor. However, this will take some time as they need to go through several processes in the technical aspect,” he added. — Bernama