Rural air routes to be commercialised

KUCHING: Several rural air services in Sarawak will be opened for commercial routes by allowing other airlines besides MASwings to fly the routes next year.

Transport Minister Anthony Loke said the matter was discussed during a meeting with Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg yesterday.

“In Sarawak, air transportation is very important, so I have informed Sarawak’s chief minister that the ministry of transportation will open several rural air services routes to commercial routes,” he told reporters yesterday after paying a courtesy visit to Abang Johari at the State Legislative (DUN) complex.

Loke added that the state has vast tourism potential that needs efficient air transportation and the chief minister welcome the move by Ministry of Transport (MOT) to find new approach to develop and help air transportation in the state.

“Efficient air transportation would greatly help the economy of the state in tourism sector and health tourism,” he said.

Loke added that MOT will study the request from chief minister for a flight from Kuching to Jakarta and Australia and also from Subu to China.

The minister said that MOT supports the exemption of domestic flights in the state from sales and services tax (SST) by the Ministry of Finance.

This, he said was because air transportation was very much needed by the people from Sarawak, being the largest state in the country.

On the demand from the people in Sibu for a bigger plane for the flight from Kuching to Kota Kinabalu, Loke said that a decision would be made soon, adding that a problem of inadequate flights from Peninsular Malaysia to Sarawak during festive seasons would also be looked into.

“Within a year, MOT will look into a different approach to increase flights and with that the tickets prices will decrease,” he said.

However, he added that MOT will not likely impose ceiling price for flight tickets during festive season as it will have a negative effect like higher tickets on ordinary days.