Airline companies urged to lower ticket prices for Sabahans

16 April 2023

By Wartawan Nabalu News

KOTA KINABALU: Sabahans who want to return home for the festive season are facing exorbitant airfares, especially for domestic routes said Kinabatangan MP Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin.

Bung has called on the Transport Ministry and the airline companies to address this issue and not burden the people.

In a Facebook post on Sunday, Bung said he had contacted the Transport Ministry three days ago and asked for additional flights between Sandakan and Kota Kinabalu.

He said the Minister agreed to increase flights on April 18th to 20th, but the ticket prices remained high.

He cited an example of an AirAsia one way ticket from Sandakan to Kota Kinabalu that cost RM700 for Ramadan this year. He said some tickets even reached RM3,000, which was unacceptable and absurd.

"Not everyone from Sabah is capable of paying such expensive fare, they simply want to return and meet with their families once a year," he said.

Bung, who is also the assemblyman for Lamag, said he understood that the airline company Firefly would begin operating domestically in Sabah in May. He urged them not to focus on reaping profits and not to torture the Sabahans.

He also appealed to other airline companies to be more considerate and not only think of profits by increasing the prices of airline tickets.