The Ministry of Transportation (MOT) has announced that flight tickets to East Malaysia will be capped at just RM599 for one-way tickets, thanks to a new government subsidy.
This initiative will cover flight tickets from Peninsular Malaysia to Sabah, Sarawak, and Labuan. What this means is that the government will pay the difference between the actual price and the capped price. However, it is only available for the 3 days before a major festival public holiday.
It is important to note that the subsidy will only cover the base fare of an economy flight, and not the other extraneous fees and taxes. Change of passenger name, date of departure or flight number are not allowed. The ticket will also be non-refundable.
Subsidy for one-way flight from 22, 23 and 24 Dec
The new subsidy was first announced last Sunday, through a Facebook post on MOT’s official page.
In the post, the Transport Minister Anthony Loke also said that the initiative will start from 16 December 2023, right in time for the Christmas holidays. It is only applicable for flights taken in the 3 days before Christmas (22, 23 and 24).
The subsidy will only apply IF the chosen economy flight costs over RM500. This will be available from websites of domestic airlines namely AirAsia, Firefly, Malaysia Airlines Berhad and Batik Air.
Subsidy will be available for major festivals in 2024
The initiative will also run in 2024, with the subsidy in place for Tahun Baru Cina, Hari Raya Puasa, Kaamatan Festival, Gawai, and Christmas.
In the announcement of the subsidy initiative, Anthony Loke said that usually flight ticket prices will skyrocket in price 2-3 days before a holiday, due to the dwindling number of seats available.
“When there are only a small number of seats available in a flight, maybe less than 10% available, the price will skyrocket,”
“It’s true that the prices for these seats can reach RM1000, in fact it can exceed RM1000,” said Anthony Loke during the announcement.
