AIRASIA Group Bhd will be operating an additional 42 flights weekly from Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah to Sarawak from December 4 to January 5, 2022. 

The airline said today it has received confirmation from the Ministry of Transport Sarawak (MOTS) and Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) for the extra flights. 

This, it said, has brought the fares down from around RM1,000 one way to below RM200 for a Kuala Lumpur-Kuching flight. It added that the tickets were quickly snapped up.

AirAsia said it will be flying five daily flights between Kuala Lumpur and Kuching, which is a 67% reduction in its capacity due to restrictions by SDMC. 

It said previously for the Kuala Lumpur-Kuching route, it used to operate 12-15 flights daily. 

AirAsia Malaysia chief executive officer Riad Asmat said many people have been able to grab the airline’s low fares when it ran a promotion at the end of last month with flights from Kuala Lumpur to Sarawak selling from as low as RM99 one way. 

“We comprehend that demand is there but at the moment, we are unable to meet it until more flight approvals are given,” he said in a statement. 

“We would like to express our sincere appreciation to SDMC and MOTS for the additional flight approval for the Christmas holiday season.”

AirAsia was addressing concerns expressed on social media that the airline is charging high fares for flights between Peninsular Malaysia and Sarawak for the upcoming holiday season. 

The airline has been continuously engaging MOTS and submitted applications to permanently increase its scheduled flight frequencies from the peninsula and Sabah to Sarawak on several occasions since early this year.

This includes the latest request submitted last week, which included the operation of extra flights for Christmas and Chinese New Year. 

Riad said as a low-cost carrier, AirAsia needs volume to pass on the lowest fares to its customers. 

“AirAsia’s operation is all about economies of scale where we need to achieve a high passenger volume so that costs can be spread among a sizeable number of passengers, allowing us to offer travellers low fares and giving them great value for money,” he said. 

“Historically, our average fare for flights between Sarawak and Peninsular Malaysia has been around RM160 per one way passenger.

“This takes into account the highest fares and the lowest, including when we offer zero fare promotional sales.

“AirAsia’s pricing model is similar to other airlines the world over and is based on supply and demand.”

He said in abiding with the limited flight frequencies imposed by SDMC resulting in a reduced supply of flight seats, AirAsia’s demand-based dynamic pricing mechanism has inevitably derived prices seen as unfavourable to buyers at this time.

“It must be remembered that this is also the same mechanism that we used to offer guests promotional fares from as low as RM99 one way in October,” he said. 

“As a general rule, fares will be higher, closer to the travel date and during peak holiday periods when our flights are already near full. 

“Buyers have already taken up to 90% of our capacity on most flights. The limitation on the number of flights available in the market is a key factor that has pushed the prices higher across all airlines.”

Riad said AirAsia will appeal to MOTS and SDMC to also approve its request for extra Chinese New Year flights and to remove frequency restrictions entirely to enable the airline to better manage cost efficiency and lower the fares for passengers. – November 27, 2021.