AIRASIA is scrapping its direct flights from Kuching to Penang and vice versa from March 1, Sarawak Minister of Transport Lee Kim Shin, announced today. 

The budget airline will instead run the flights via Kuala Lumpur, Lee added after he was briefed on the decision by Hamdan Mohamad, AirAsia’s government relations officer in Sarawak yesterday. 

“AirAsia Berhad will be realigned with a stopover or fly-thru Kuala Lumpur before flying to Kuching and vice-versa,” he said. 

The route, the longest of the dozen or so direct flights to and from Kuching, is 742 km and flight time would be around 2 hours and 15 minutes. 

With AirAsia’s withdrawal, only Firefly remains to ply the route on a twice-daily frequency. 

Lee said passengers who had made advance ticket purchases and were thereby affected by the “realignment” could choose one of three options to redeem their tickets. 

The first option would let them switch to the new route that transited through Kuala Lumpur. 

The next two options would be for them to get their tickets refunded. They could either accept credits in their AirAsia account, or opt for cash refunds that would be credited directly to their personal bank accounts. 

Lee gave no reason why AirAsia was scrapping the route, but hinted at the possibility that the airline did not have enough aircraft when he said “half of their (AirAsia) aircraft (are) still scheduled for maintenance”. 

He advised those affected to complain to the Malaysian Aviation Commission, the regulator for aviation development, if they had problems in getting their tickets refunded. – February 7, 2023.