With Chinese New Year just around the corner, AirAsia has announced additional flights to Sabah and Sarawak with fixed fares starting from RM199 one-way. This provides an additional option for those intending to return home to their respective hometowns for the Chinese New Year week.
These extra flights are available for booking on AirAsia’s website and app starting today, 28th December 2022. This is applicable for the travel period of 17th to 30th January 2023. Tickets from Kuala Lumpur to Kuching, Sibu, Bintulu and Miri, as well as from Johor Bahru to Kuching, Sibu and Miri are priced at RM199 one-way. Meanwhile, flights from Kuala Lumpur to Kota Kinabalu and Tawau, as well as Johor Bahru to Kota Kinabalu are priced at RM249 one-way.
The fixed fares are applicable to the 52 special extra flights to six popular destinations in Sabah and Sarawak and are mostly scheduled past midnight. These are introduced on top of the current 274 weekly flights operated by AirAsia at regular fares to the same destination.
List of special extra flights at fixed fares offered by AirAsia
During the announcement, Transport Minister Anthony Loke thanked Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia (CAAM) for facilitating the extra flights at fixed fare initiative. He explained any additional flights would require the involvement CAAM, especially to extend the operating hours for airports in Sabah and Sarawak. He said control towers have to open past midnight and most airports in East Malaysia close earlier before midnight. Besides facilitating the extra operating hours, the initiative would require air traffic controllers to work overtime past midnight. He thanked all parties including airport operators for making the initiative possible.
Anthony said MAHB is also prepared to provide initiatives to all airlines if they have initiatives to introduce additional flights with fixed fares.
The Minister also acknowledged challenges faced by airlines, especially AirAsia which is only operating at half capacity. He said more than half of their aircraft are still grounded and will require time to reactivate the aircraft from hibernation due to the pandemic. He hopes more efforts can be made to ensure more aircraft are in the air so that there will be more capacity for air travel.
Airlines need to manage flight delays, rescheduling and re-timing better
On delays, rescheduling and re-timing of flights, Anthony said he understands airlines are operating in a challenging environment due to the lack of aircraft but he hopes there will be better systems to be put in place and to improve SOP and communications to all passengers in terms of delays and re-timing as he has received a lot of feedback on the unpleasant experience.
Responding to a question on having a price cap for flight tickets, Anthony said at this point in time there’s no plan to set a ceiling price for airlines. He explained airlines are operating based on dynamic pricing and if there’s a price ceiling, there will be other negative implications for passengers. Airlines may cut down capacity and there would be lesser flights for everyone.
He said there will be a surge during the peak festive season but prices remain affordable during normal periods. Therefore, the government is encouraging airlines to add more flights during the festive season so that flight tickets can be more affordable. For students, the government is looking at initiatives to help out students.
