New schedule for flights to Miri, Sibu
MIRI: There will be no more AirAsia flights from Johor Baru to Sibu starting Jan 10 as a new schedule has been drawn up effective from Jan 9 in line with the decision of Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) to slash flights to Sibu and Miri.
In a statement, state Transport Minister Datuk Lee Kim Shin said the last flight from Johor Baru to Sibu would be on Jan 9 and there would be no more such flights until further notice, adding all the new flight schedules for Sibu and Miri will take effect on that day.
His ministry wrote to MAS, AirAsia and MASwings on Jan 5 on the approved flights after SDMC agreed to requests from the Sibu and Miri Division Disaster Management Committees for flight reduction.
This was due to limited number
of hotel rooms available for quarantine purposes and the rising number of Covid-19 cases in Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah.
According to the new schedule, there would be only two approved flights weekly to Sibu from Kuala Lumpur, departing at 11am on Saturday (AirAsia) and Wednesday (MAS).
For Miri, there would be a total of 11 arrivals weekly. SDMC approved two flights by MAS and four by AirAsia from Kuala Lumpur.
There would be a flight from Kota Kinabalu by AirAsia and two from Labuan by MASWings.
AirAsia flights at 5.30pm from KL will be on every Saturday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday while MAS will fly the route at 12.30pm on Sunday and Thursday.
AirAsia will fly from Kota Kinabalu at 10.30am every Tuesday and Friday while the single flight from Johor Bahru will be at 6pm on Tuesday.
MASWings will pick up passengers from Labuan to Miri at 9am on Monday and Thursday.
Lee said the latest information on flight schedule approved by SDMC has been released to the public through the social media in advance so that the public are fully aware of the changes in flight schedule to enable them to arrange their travel plan.
In planning the overall flight schedule, he added, each airline is given a different flight timing in order to assist the airline to have better passenger load for their flight.
“I would like to remind all airlines to only sell flight tickets according to the flight schedule approved by SDMC. This is important to provide reliable flight services to the public in the state,” he said.
He advised the public to book or purchase flight tickets based on the SDMC’s latest approved flight schedule. Lee warned airlines against cancelling any SDMC-approved flight at the last minute to avoid causing unnecessary problem to the public.