TRANSPORT Minister Wee Ka Siong has refuted the allegation of costly flight tickets of up to RM3,283 from Ipoh to Singapore for next year’s Chinese New Year celebration.

He said that based on a check by the Malaysian Aviation Commission (Mavcom), AirAsia tickets for flights from Ipoh to Singapore are priced at RM196 for January 19 to 21 next year, with Chinese New Year falling on January 22.

Tickets for flights from Singapore to Ipoh on the same dates are priced at RM1,185.

“Based on the data, the return airfare is not RM3,283 as claimed by Wong Kah Won via his Facebook post,” he said in a statement uploaded to his Facebook page.

According to Wee, Wong, who is the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, made the allegation via his Facebook page yesterday. 

Wee said airfares the week before and after the Chinese New Year, based on checks, were also much cheaper, with AirAsia flight tickets from Ipoh to Singapore from Jan 16-18, 2023 costing RM184 while those on Jan 23-24, 2023 are priced at between RM408 and RM691.

He said the same applied for AirAsia flight tickets from Singapore to Ipoh from Jan 16-18, 2023, which are priced at between RM434 and RM821, while its airfare for January 23-24, 2023 was between RM408 and RM517. 

“You can check all airfares for next year’s Chinese New Year with just a few clicks,” he said. – Bernama, May 15, 2022.