The government's decision to extend subsidies to ensure the success of the airfare initiative during festive seasons has helped reduce people's grievances about high airline ticket prices, said Transport Minister Anthony Loke.
Loke said the success was proven after a year when the Madani government implemented subsidies in conjunction with the festive season in the country.
WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news
SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar
LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline
Loke said the success was proven after a year when the Madani government implemented subsidies in conjunction with the festive season in the country.
WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news
SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar
LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00This year I am with the Malaysian Airlines to deliver two flights, one to Tawau and one to Sandakan.
00:19Both of these flights are additional flights, what we call red-eye flights,
00:25which are night flights.
00:29The flight to Tawau started at 11pm and ended at 11.30pm.
00:35So when this flight arrived at Sabah, it was already 2am.
00:41So that is what we call red-eye flights.
00:44And the flight will return in a few minutes.
00:46So all of these special flights are additional flights to increase the capacity.
00:52So this year, for the Malaysian Airlines alone, they have added 102 additional flights tonight.
01:06So because of these additional flights, all of our airports are forced to operate until early morning.
01:15So this is our joint effort to deal with the issue of high flight tickets.
01:22So after a year of operating this base,
01:25where last year we started the base to set a fixed or maximum flight rate during the holiday season.
01:35We have seen that after a year of operating this base,
01:39it can be said that during the holiday season we have managed to control the flight tickets.
01:44Especially the flight to Sabah Sarawak.
01:48Because usually the price fluctuates from Kuala Lumpur to Sabah Sarawak before the holiday season.
01:56Because everyone wants to return at the same time.
01:59So if we look at the previous years,
02:02there were many cases where if they bought a ticket at the last minute,
02:09sometimes it would fluctuate.
02:12Because all airlines have a dynamic pricing.
02:17If the demand is high, the price will increase.
02:19But with the intervention of the government,
02:22we have given subsidies to the airlines so that we can set a maximum rate.
02:29So this year's maximum rate is set at RM499.
02:34But the airlines have done something more than that.
02:39So they have also proposed a fixed rate.
02:44For example, the Red Light Flags have set a fixed rate of RM400.
02:51So I understand that returning to the airport early can be done for RM300.
02:57So that is an additional effort from the airlines.
03:01As the Minister of Transport, I have said that the government will help partially,
03:06but the airlines will also help.
03:08So with this same effort,
03:10we have managed to see that there are no complaints from passengers.
03:15So the media has not heard about it anymore.
03:17There are people on social media saying that it is RM2,000 to return early,
03:20RM1,500 to return on time.
03:22There are no such issues.
03:24Because we have set a fixed rate for all flights within 3-4 days before the holiday season.
03:30I want to emphasize that this effort is not only for the Chinese New Year.
03:35The same for Eid al-Fitr, Khamatan, Gawai and Christmas.
03:39So we have been working together for a year with the airlines.
03:49We have seen that all the flights are full.
03:52So what is interesting is that 95% of the flights are full.
03:57Maybe there is only a few seats left.
04:00But this is an additional flight, this is a Red Light Flight.
04:04Normally, most of the seats are full.
04:10What is interesting is that not only are the flights from Kuala Lumpur to Sabah Sarawak full,
04:15the flights from Sabah Sarawak back to Kuala Lumpur are also full.
04:18For example, this flight went to Sandakan.
04:21From Sandakan or Tawau, it returned to KL.
04:24I understand that 90% of the flights are full.
04:28This means that many people are taking advantage of the cheaper flight tickets.
04:32Maybe some of them came to KL for vacation or to visit their relatives.
04:37So that is what I think is very good.
04:39And we hope that the government's main agenda is to see more national integration
04:48between Semenanjung and Sabah Sarawak.
04:50This is our national agenda.
05:02For more UN videos visit www.un.org