SEPANG: Those looking to travel between the peninsula and East Malaysia for the coming Hari Raya Aidilfitri holidays will be able to do so from RM199 for a one-way ticket, budget carrier AirAsia announced today.
Starting from 6pm today, tickets can be booked for RM199 for flights between Kuala Lumpur and Johor Baru to Kuching, Bintulu, Miri and Sibu in Sarawak.
For those wishing to travel to Kota Kinabalu, Sandakan and Tawau in Sabah, a one-way ticket will cost RM249.
“Keeping in mind how important unity and togetherness is during this festive season, we have allocated as many seats as possible: a total of 11,400 seats for this special fare,” Bo Lingam, the group CEO of AirAsia Aviation Group said during its launch here.
The travel period for the fixed fare flights is from April 19–21 and April 28–30.
Transport Minister Anthony Loke who was also at the same news conference said an additional 62 flights will be scheduled for the 11 domestic routes.
“I hope that other airlines will also welcome this call in adding their flight capacities so that we can together provide more opportunities to Malaysians to go home to celebrate the coming Hari Raya Aidilfitri,” he said.
The promotion which ran for the Chinese New Year period earlier this year had sold out all of its seats, he added.
“We want to focus on not only transportation in the peninsula but also between the peninsula and Sabah and Sarawak as there is no other choice for that besides the mode of air travel,” he said.
Loke said many Sabahans and Sarawakians work in the Klang Valley and Johor Baru so it is important to ensure that flight fares during festive seasons are not burdensome.
Because of the dynamic pricing of flight fares, prices for flight tickets will rise in line with demand when festive seasons draw near, he explained.
“The transport ministry has studied this issue for many years and we have begun ensuring that demand can be satisfied for festive seasons by encouraging airlines to increase their capacity so that their offerings can accommodate demand, so that [customers] can get a better price,” he said.
Malaysia observes Hari Raya Aidilfitri on April 22 and 23.
