Sarawak allows airlines to fly in full capacity

The Sarawak State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) has approved the decision for full capacity flights between Peninsular Malaysia and Sarawak, and vice versa, effective today.

Sarawak Transport Minister Datuk Lee Lim Shin said the decision was made after taking into consideration various factors.

“Although the approval has been given for inter-state travel and on 100 per cent flight capacity, all agencies such as the airport operators and airline operators must follow strictly the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) on the passengers at the terminal and while inside the aircraft,” he said in a statement here today.

In order to help accelerate domestic economic recovery, he said all airlines, whether operating to and from Sarawak or operating within the state were allowed to resume their flights according to their frequencies before the enforcement of the Movement Control Order (MCO) introduced on March 18.

“For this purpose, all airlines need to officially apply to SDMC to increase their flight frequency to Sarawak and within Sarawak.

Lee said prior to this decision, information that had been obtained by his ministry revealed that airlines have been charging exorbitant fares for their flights between Peninsular Malaysia and Sarawak.

“For example, the flight fares from Kuala Lumpur to Kuching is RM2,100 and from Kuala Lumpur to Miri is RM2,366,” he said.

The higher fares are due to the lower passenger load due to the SOP to curtail COVID-19.

He hoped that with the decision, airlines could cope with the current situation and able to reduce their flight fares to a reasonable level and acceptable to the public.

-- BERNAMA