Officials take up complaints of expensive domestic flights

Passenger capacity has been cut to 66%, causing fares to go up, according to a minister.

PUTRAJAYA: The Transport Ministry is discussions with local airlines to resolve complaints of expensive tickets for domestic air travel, especially to Sabah and Sarawak, said senior minister for security, Ismail Sabri Yaakob.

Ismail said he would be informed about the outcome of the meetings soon.

“We understand that air fares are expensive because the implementation of social distancing has forced passenger capacity to be cut to 66%.

“We know that a one-way ticket could reach almost RM2,000 for a flight from Miri to Kuala Lumpur, so we are discussing. We hope there will be no more issue for them to raise fares and the like,” he told a daily press conference here today.

He said airlines had applied to fill their planes to full passenger capacity. “Their reasoning is that all the passenger details are in the flight manifest and the passengers can be contacted in the event a (Covid-19) case was detected.

“But the most important thing now is that the protocols must be observed in order to check the spread of Covid-19,” he added.

Checks by Bernama showed that many people have complained about expensive fares for domestic air travel and the issue was a hot topic on social media.

This is mainly because many people are planning to go back to their home towns, following the lifting of travel restrictions under the recovery movement control order beginning on Wednesday. - FMT