THE Transport Ministry (MOT) has approved 527 additional flights in conjunction with Aildilfitri this year, involving Malaysia Airlines, Batik Air, AirAsia, Firefly, MASWings and MYAirline.

In a statement today, the ministry said the measure taken via the Malaysian Aviation Commission (Mavcom) was to meet high demand during the festive season for flights from the peninsula to Sabah and Sarawak.

“Since early March, MOT and Mavcom have taken proactive measures and encouraged airlines to offer reasonable airfare.

“Mavcom has approved all additional capacity requests by airlines offering fixed fares to major destinations in Malaysia,” it said.

Malaysia Airlines is offering 184 additional flights, followed by Batik Air (173), AirAsia (130), Firefly (18), MASwings (12) and MYAirline (10).

From Peninsular Malaysia, there will be 118 additional flights to Kota Kinabalu, 70 to Tawau, 32 to Sandakan, 102 to Kuching, 34 to Sibu, 20 to Miri, and 14 to Bintulu.

MOT said Mavcom approved more additional flights to ensure higher seat availability and keep fares affordable.

“The fixed-fare tickets were sold out quickly. Regular-fare tickets also saw high purchase rates, which led to increased prices for the remaining tickets,” it said.

The statement said MOT and Mavcom activated intervention measures by engaging with Malaysia Airlines Bhd (MAB) when flight capacities offered by low-cost airlines were insufficient.

MOT said MAB agreed to upgrade 40 flights to Airbus A330 aircraft for the Kuala Lumpur-Kota Kinabalu route.

“This helped in lowering initial fares,” MOT said.

The additional trips are to supplement the 5,617 flights scheduled within Peninsular Malaysia, 2,149 between Peninsular Malaysia and Sarawak, and 2,033 between Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah. – Bernama, April 8, 2023.