KUCHING: The federal and Sarawak governments have been urged to step in and ensure that prices of air tickets are more affordable for Sarawakians to travel back to vote in the state polls.
Bandar Kuching MP Dr Kelvin Yii said that despite state Transport Minister Datuk Seri Lee Kim Shin’s announcement on the increase of flights into Sarawak from 223 to 307 weekly, starting Dec 11, air tickets are still high.
“There was a news report saying that with the approval for additional flights into Sarawak, an airline like AirAsia has dropped the price of tickets to Kuching from Kuala Lumpur to under RM200.
“However, a quick search on its website does not show any availability of such flights at such prices with very limited flights available at about RM300 one way and many others still more than RM1,000 one way.
“That is why I believe both the governments should step in and find ways to incentivise people to go back to vote,” he said in a Facebook post on Monday (Nov 29).
He said that this could be done through a subsidy scheme by both the federal and state governments in collaboration with all the airlines.
“I propose that flight tickets to and from Sarawak, as well as within Sarawak, to be offered at an affordable flat rate for a week – three days before and three days after the election on Dec 18.”
He said that such prices should be offered for a few flights to cater for the demand and not just limited to a few seats.
“This has been done before and I’m sure it can be done again. In conjunction with the 14th General Election in 2018, AirAsia offered fixed fares as low as RM99 to encourage Malaysians to return home to cast their ballots.
“Such a model could be followed again to encourage more people to fly back home.”
