PETALING JAYA: Malaysia is losing billions of ringgit for not having sufficient flights to popular travel destinations such as Sydney and Jeddah, said AirAsia X Sdn Bhd chief executive officer Azran Osman Rani.

"There are a lot of destinations that we are losing out in terms of the opportunity cost and people have to pay more to go to places such as Sydney, Jeddah and Istanbul because they don't have a choice. It's costing the country a lot of money," he told reporters on the sidelines after the StarBiz-ICR Malaysia forum yesterday.

"The most popular routes where Malaysia is losing billions of ringgit for not allowing us (AirAsia X) to fly there are Sydney, Jeddah and Istanbul."

Azran said the routes, other than being popular travel destinations, were also prominent "economic centres" that promoted investment flows.

Meanwhile, on Budget 2011, Azran said: "We're less concerned about taxes or subsidies. We're more concerned about the Government creating a level playing field. We'd like to see policies that encourage competition and therefore innovation.

"One thing that Malaysia needs as an economic strategy is to remove the monopolistic and protectionist barriers and allow companies to compete."

The Government will table its Budget 2011 in Parliament this Friday.

Azran also said he is hopeful that the Government would announce incentives at the Budget that would promote the local tourism industry.

"For this industry to grow, Malaysia really needs to think about promoting itself and having much better infrastructure for tourism, such as public transportation.

"This needs to be resolved to the extent that there are resources and budget allocations towards improving taxis (services) and allowing Tourism Malaysia to promote themselves better."

- The Star Online