KUCHING: Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) has directed all airlines to resume normal operations and lower the flight fare in line with the increase in flight frequency to Sarawak effective Jan 14.
Minister of Transport Sarawak Datuk Seri Lee Kim Shin said that SDMC has approved 562 flights weekly upon the ministry’s proposal to increase the flight frequency to Sarawak in Jan 12.
“The increase in weekly flight frequency from outside Sarawak to all major cities and towns in the state comprise 279 flights to Kuching, 127 flights to Miri, 83 flights to Sibu, 59 flights to Bintulu and seven flights to Limbang and Mulu respectively.
“Now, it is up to the airlines to start operating on the new flight frequency and schedule starting Jan 14, 2022,” he said in a statement on Friday.
He added that approval of the new flight frequency was granted by SDMC after taking into consideration various factors such as that Sarawak had moved to the Phase 4 of the National Recovery Plan (NRP), additional flight requests from the public due to the Chinese New Year, low number of positive COVID-19 cases in the state, international travellers going to Sarawak through West Malaysia will be quarantined in Kuala Lumpur as well as to promote Sarawak’s tourism industry.
Among the new SOPs set by SDMC to encourage travellers to visit Sarawak was abolishing the requirement to fill the enterSarawak online app for fully vaccinated persons who have resided in Malaysia at least for the last 14 days.
However, they are still required to fill-in the eHealth declaration form upon entry.
“Apart from that, airlines were also reminded to assist and ensure that only fully vaccinated passengers are allowed to board their aircraft.
“This is very important to ensure that SDMC’s new standard operating procedures (SOPs) are being followed closely and to prevent COVID-19 from spreading further in the state,” he said.
Lee also reminded all travellers and passengers coming into the state to comply strictly with the SOP established by the Ministry of Health (MOH), National Security Council (NSC) and SDMC to contain the spread of COVID-19 in Sarawak.
