PUTRAJAYA: The Transport Ministry has approved 527 additional flights for Hari Raya Aildilfitri this year, involving Malaysia Airlines, Batik Air, AirAsia, Firefly, MASWings and MYAirline.
The ministry said the measure, implemented through the Malaysian Aviation Commission (Mavcom), aimed to meet the high demand for air travel from the peninsula to Sabah and Sarawak during the festive season.
"Since early March, the ministry and Mavcom have taken proactive measures and encouraged airlines to offer reasonable fares.
"Mavcom has approved all additional capacity requests by airlines offering fixed fares to major destinations in Malaysia," it said.
A total of 184 additional flights are offered by Malaysia Airlines, 173 by Batik Air, 130 by AirAsia, 18 by Firefly, 12 by MASwings and 10 MYAirline.
The additional flights involve 118 flights from Peninsular Malaysia to Kota Kinabalu, 70 to Tawau, 32 to Sandakan, 102 to Kuching, 34 to Sibu, 20 to Miri and 14 to Bintulu.
"The fixed-fare tickets were sold out quickly. In fact, normal fare tickets also saw a high purchase rate, which led to increased prices for the remaining tickets," the ministry said.
It said the ministry and Mavcom held discussions with Malaysia Airlines Berhad (MAB) when the capacity of low-cost airlines was insufficient.
The ministry said MAB agreed to use the wide-body Airbus A330 aircraft for 40 Kuala Lumpur-Kota Kinabalu flights.
"This has helped lower fares," it said.
The additional flights are on top of the 5,617 flights scheduled to operate within Peninsular Malaysia, 2,149 flights between Peninsular Malaysia and Sarawak, and 2,033 flights between Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah. – BERNAMA