Loke looks into lowering airfares for East Malaysians during festive season

 

Transport Minister Anthony Loke will discuss with airline operators ways of bringing down airfares for domestic flights so that East Malaysians can return home during the festive season.

In an interview with DAP mouthpiece The Rocket yesterday, Loke said he remembers his promise while campaigning in Sibu during the general election.

"I know that people want the airfares to be lowered before the Chinese New Year, I will work on this," he said.

During his first stint as transport minister, Loke pushed for extra midnight domestic flights at cheaper prices to address the problem of expensive tickets, especially to Sabah and Sarawak.

In November last year, Loke's predecessor Wee Ka Siong said the government would not intervene in the setting of domestic flight prices.

"Since 2006, we’ve allowed the competition to fix the prices. Now with the Covid pandemic and the sudden shutdown of the industry, these companies had to take a huge loss," Wee was reported as saying in Parliament then.

Ex-transport minister Wee Ka Siong

In March, Wee advised travellers to book flight tickets early for the next Chinese New Year festive season to avoid paying a higher price later.

Digitalising systems

Loke also pledged to push for the digitalisation of the government service delivery systems under his ministry, particularly the Road Transport Department (RTD).

This includes for the driving test, renewal of road tax and driving license.

"The driving test, in particular, I want to make the entire process transparent and digitalised, and reject the culture of ‘pau’. I hope it will be more transparent, more credible, and give young people more confidence," he said.

‘Pau’ is the practice of individuals illegally “buying” their license through bribes to pass the driving test and get their driving license, also known as 'kopi-o-license'. - Mkini