Three airlines agree to increase capacity during festive seasons — Ministry

KUALALUMPUR: The Transport Ministry has rejected a proposal to introduce ceiling price for airfares during the festive seasons.

Transport Minister Anthony Loke Siew Fook, however, said the three major airlines namely MAS, AirAsia and Malindo Air agreed to increase its flight capacity to about 20 per cent inorder to lower the airfares during the season.

Comment ing further, he said based on a study by the Malaysian Aviation Commission (Mavcom), the cei ling price introduction would affect the average price of the non- peak season.

“We are worried if we introduce the ceiling price, then airlines would average the fare and as a result, the average fare price on non-peak days will increase based on the market.

“This is something that we do not want to happen as the trend for domestic airfares has declined over the last few years,” he told a press conference yesterday.

Previously, Mavcom was instructed to conduct a study on ceiling price introduction after the issue of unreasonable flight tickets during the festive seasons was raised in Parliament.

Loke said the study found that there was an increase of flight ticket prices on 10 domestic routes during the main festive season namely Hari Raya Aidilfitri, Chinese New Year, Gawai Dayak and Kaamatan Festival.

“For instance, the airfares from Ipoh to Johor Bharu during the Chinese New Year season recorded an increase of 5.7- fold, while the Johor Bharu to Sibu route increased 4.2 times and Kuala Lumpur to Kuching during Aidilfitri increased more than three times,” he said.

Hence as a result of the discussions, he said the three airlines would offer more flights starting next year.

He added, seven days before the festival, the airlines would offer additional flights on a daily basis that would add more offers of a lower ticket price.

“Each route will have an additional 20 per cent from the existing capacity.

“We have identified seven routes that will get additional flights for seven consecutive days before the Chinese New Year.

“We will identify the routes for Aidilfitri,” he said.

Loke said the companies would also offer midnight flights with cheaper fare.

“We also discussed that apart from the airlines, many other agencies would be involved in relation to additional flight such as air traffic controller because there are airports that do not operate after 10 pm, so if there is a night flight, they need to be operated until later,” he said.

When asked about the reduction in airfares, Loke said “I do not want to put a figure of how much the reduction but there must be a reduction”.

He said if the method does not lower the airfares, the ministry would re-examine other methods.