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Kota Kinabalu: The annual festive price increase by airline operators is nothing new, but its high time such unscrupulous practices is put to a stop by the government, according to former Kota Kinabalu PBS – GRS candidate Yee Tsai Yiew.She said the Transport Ministry’s approval to increase flight frequency during festive season, should reflect on a more competitive ticket prices, but this does not seem to be the case currently.

“Air travel in Sabah and Sarawak is an essential service not a luxury, hence a need for the government to step in and put a ceiling to the air fare, especially during festive seasons to protect the passengers from being exploited,” she said. “As such we call upon the Deputy Prime Minister for Sabah and Sarawak to voice out on these irresponsible practice by airline operators as this exploitive business nature has been going on for too long and the people of Sabah and Sarawak ultimately have to pay dearly to these unscrupulous operators,” added Yiew. Previously only MAS and AirAsia serves domestic routes hence the higher prices, but with more domestic airlines operators servicing these routes such as Malindo and MYAirline, prices during festive seasons should be more competitive.

If local airlines are unable to provide competitive pricing during festive season then the government should consider opening the market to stop the monopoly.

Yiew also suggested alternatively, maybe the time is right for the State government to initiate feasibility study on setting up its own airlines similar to what the Sarawak government has proposed to ensure air travel to Sabah remains affordable.