Rusdi Kirana lawan Tony Fernandez..Pusingan pertama....

Malindo eratkan Indonesia-Malaysia

KARIM RASLAN
18 September 2012

 

Pengguna kini inginkan tambang murah, penerbangan yang lebih kerap dan kapal terbang baru. Jika anda fikir penerbangan antara Malaysia dan Indonesia sudah cukup murah dan kerap: fikir kembali.

Pada minggu lepas, Rusdi Kirana, pemilik Lion Air, pengendali penerbangan tambang murah terbesar di Indonesia, menandatangani perjanjian dengan National Aerospace & Defence Industries (NADI) untuk menubuhkan Malindo Airways.

Nadi akan memiliki 51 peratus kepentingan manakala Lion pula 49 peratus, tetapi Lion akan mengendalikan pengurusan penerbangan baru tersebut. Malindo akan beroperasi dari KLIA2 yang bakal dibuka tidak lama lagi dan memulakan penerbangan antara Indonesia - Malaysia pada Mei 2013.

Malindo Airways akan memulakan operasi dengan 12 kapal terbang Boeing 737-900 dan lima Dreamliner 787-8 ciptaan syarikat gergasi Amerika itu, bermula 2015, serta memiliki 100 kapal terbang dalam masa 10 tahun. Malah, perancangan mereka termasuk penerbangan ke Asean, China, Hong Kong, India, Jepun dan mungkin sejauh Australia dan Eropah.

Kerjasama Indonesia dan Malaysia tersebut merupakan berita baik. Walaupun hubungan antara kedua negara ini kadangkala tidak stabil, hasil usaha sama ini mampu mengeratkan lagi hubungan sesama masyarakat Indonesia dan Malaysia.

Tambahan pula, Rusdi Kirana merupakan ahli perniagaan berjaya yang berani. Pada awal perniagaan Lion pada 2000, menerusi penerbangan antara Jakarta dan Pontianak menggunakan pesawat yang disewa, tiada siapa mengambil serius akan usahawan ini yang asalnya ialah seorang ejen pelancongan. Namun, pada akhir tahun pertamanya, Lion telah memulakan penerbangan ke Singapura dan Kuala Lumpur dan Penang.

Apabila beliau membuat pesanan mega untuk 230 kapal terbang Boeing 737 bernilai AS$21.7 bilion pada November 2011, Jakarta - dan juga seluruh dunia - mula memberi perhatian, lebih-lebih lagi perjanjian tersebut telah disaksikan oleh Presiden AS, Barack Obama.
Kini dengan 80 pesawat dan 60 destinasi, syarikat penerbangan ‘Pak Rusdi’ telah melangkaui Garuda sebagai pengendali pesawat domestik terbesar di Indonesia.

Berdasarkan laporan Wall Street Journal pada 2011, sebanyak 47.9 peratus daripada pelancong domestik Indonesia memilih Lion Air dan angka ini dijangka meningkat kepada 30 juta orang pada 2012. Sememangnya, ini suatu pencapaian luar biasa bagi seseorang yang umurnya belum lagi mencecah 50 tahun!

Melalui perjanjian dengan NADI, ternyata Pak Rusdi mempunyai rancangan bagi pasaran antarabangsa, satu sektor yang dikuasai AirAsia, gergasi penerbangan Asia Tenggara. AirAsia kini memegang 40 peratus daripada pasaran penerbangan antarabangsa di Malaysia (dan juga 42 peratus Indonesia). AirAsia telah menguatkan genggaman mereka ke atas Indonesia dengan pembelian Batavia Air pada Julai 2012 dengan harga AS$80 juta. Malah pendiri AirAsia Tan Sri Tony Fernandes juga berhijrah ke Jakarta.

Pak Rusdi dan Tony (Tony mengalu-alukan persaingan ini) akan berhadapan antara satu sama lain, walaupun telah dinyatakan bahawa Malindo bukan seperti AirAsia, dan akan menyediakan perkhidmatan hiburan semasa penerbangan.

Pasaran sebaliknya ingin menggalakkan persaingan ini; modal pasaran AirAsia telah jatuh sebanyak RM475 juta pada 12 September 2012 (sehari selepas pengumuman penubuhan Malindo) dan harga saham pula telah jatuh sebanyak 5.33 peratus. Ekspansi Lion Air mungkin akan mengurangkan dominasi AirAsia di Indonesia dan Asia Tenggara, ujar penganalisis Citi, Rigan Wong.

Hanya masa yang akan menentukan sejauh mana Malindo dapat merealisasikan potensinya: kerana banyak syarikat penerbangan baru yang gagal untuk mengekalkan momentum selepas pelancarannya.

Satu lagi aspek menarik persaingan ini adalah perang proksi untuk kuasa dominan dalam pasaran penerbangan Asia Tenggara antara Airbus (AirAsia) dan Boeing (Lion/Malindo).

Saya berasa sedikit kecewa kerana Pak Rusdi tidak menggunakan jenama Lion Air dalam usaha sama Malindo ini. Lion Air - dengan penerbangan kerap ke Kuala Lumpur, Penang dan Melaka (dan akan ke Johor Baru) - merupakan satu jenama yang sudah dikenali ramai di Malaysia.

Namun, ini merupakan permulaan satu persaingan perniagaan yang hebat - sama seakan-akan Apple vs Microsoft atau Pepsi vs Coca-Cola.

KL cabbies living up to ‘worst taxi drivers in the world’ reputation

By NATALIE HENG
newsdesk@thestar.com.my
Photos by AZHAR MAHFOF

KUALA LUMPUR: It didn't take much a backpack slung over my shoulders, an empty camera bag around the neck, some baggy trousers and voila, I looked every bit the Mat Salleh tourist.
 

Thanks to my British-Malaysian Chinese parentage, I was assigned to go “undercover” to check out how a typical tourist would fare with our KL cabbies, who had earned the city the reputation of having the worst taxi drivers in the world, according to LondonCabs.co.uk.

Popular website Tripadvisor also warns travellers about KL's errant taxi drivers who “refuse to use the meter, quoting a fare often with the view of ripping you off”.

“This quoted' fare is generally akin to daylight robbery, and sometimes when haggling takes place, it is reciprocated with rude gestures or abusive language ...” adds Tripadvisor.

On Virtualtourist.com, a visitor posted: “I have travelled the world and from Bombay to Boston I can tell you the taxi drivers in KL are the biggest pack of thieving lying dirtbags you will ever come across.”


Another responded: “Agreed! They are notorious and globally infamous for fleecing customers!”
So masquerading as a tourist, I quickly learnt that when you look lost and Caucasian, you're never short of a “friend” in Jalan Bukit Bintang.
“Hello, how are you?”
“Where you want to go, Miss?”
“Taxi ma'am?”
My first test case was a bespectacled man who leapt out from a line of cabs with the words “Metered Taxi” plastered across each side.
“Puduraya?” I asked cluelessly.
“No problem,” he said.
The cab was fairly well kept, and we joined in the line of moving traffic in front of Lot 10 along Jalan Sultan Ismail in downtown Kuala Lumpur.
The driver was polite and friendly.
He set on getting to know me where I was from, what I was doing here and then offering several exciting trips for me to take: to Genting Highlands and back? RM250. National Zoo? RM100.

How much?: Natalie having to haggle with a taxi driver in Jalan Sultan Ismail, Kuala Lumpur, despite (below) the sticker on a taxi stating that haggling is prohibited.

“In England, people have a lot of money, uh?”
“There's a recession,” I replied.
“When you in Malaysia, your money very big!”
We drove for a bit longer and after a minute, I asked innocently: “What's this sign on your window aren't you supposed to use the meter?”
Only the cabs at a taxi stand use the meter, he explained patiently, “but you walk very far one”.
We covered approximately 2km in about five minutes. The fee was RM25.
A quick check on the Malaysia Taxi Auto Fare website tells me the trip should have cost RM8.
I asked for a receipt, and he tore out a slip from his pink receipt book, handing it to me blank, with a knowing smile.
In all, I took five cabs, and surveyed six more, trying to get a fare comparison. Not a single one used the meter, and all had an ingenious excuse: Friday prayers, very bad traffic jam, hard to find customers, the machine is broken.

Fares for the same location varied; another cabbie who took me back to where I started, for example, charged RM15.
Out of five cabbies I asked to take me to Muzium Negara, about 4.5km away, one wanted RM15, another RM20, still another RM25 and the other two RM30.
If this is how they treat a supposed backpacker, how much would they charge me if I was staying at a five-star hotel?
“How much to Le Meridien?” I asked one driver parked outside Pavilion shopping mall.
“RM45” came the prompt answer.
Malaysia Taxi Auto Fare has that journey down to RM10, for a 10-minute, 4.5km drive.
The cab interiors varied most were well kept, and the drivers were friendly or indifferent.
There was only one driver who lived up to the number one ranking of “Worst Drivers” List, and I found him 100m to the left of Suria KLCC shopping mall's main entrance.
He was surrounded by a group of burly friends.
“Where you want to go miss?” he asked, more bullying than friendly. Central Market, I said, as he opened the door to a blue executive cab.
I wanted to go in one of the six red taxis parked around us.
“All the same price!” he said to the agreement of other taxi drivers who had crowded around him.
So I got in and the first thing we did was an illegal U-turn right across the pavement of a pedestrian crossing after the “walk” light had turned green.
Then we drove down a bus lane, went through a red light, and arrived at the far end of Lebuh Ampang, 1km away from Central Market.
“Is this Central Market?” I asked.
“Yes, there!” he said, pointing to the end of the road.
I handed him a RM50 note for my RM40, 10-minute journey. What he said next really took the biscuit.
“No change, you go to that shop and get change.”
Of all the taxi drivers I met that day, the only taxi driver who did not overcharge was a man in his early 60s.
He didn't use the meter when he took me from Jalan Tun H.S. Lee to Pavilion in Bukit Bintang and his asking price was RM10, the only fare to almost match Malaysia Taxi Auto Fare's calculations.
That's one in 11. The cabbies I encountered may not have been as nasty and rude as they have been made out to be. But when it comes to refusing to use the meter and fleecing the passenger, it seems all too sadly true.
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