By DayakDaily Team
KUCHING, April 18: In addition to Malaysia Airlines, low-cost carrier AirAsia has also announced flight cancellations to and from East Malaysia as a result of the eruption of Mount Ruang in North Sulawesi, Indonesia.
According to AirAsia, the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia (CAAM) identified Mount Ruang’s eruption, which resulted in extensive volcanic ash clouds affecting airspace and visibility in the region, as a serious threat to aircraft safety and airline passengers.
“As this volcanic eruption has caused a massive disruption to the airline operations and to protect the safety of its guests and aircraft, AirAsia is cancelling flights to and from several destinations consistent with CAAM Safety Information 09/2024 published at 11.50am.
“Flights to and from nine airports including Kota Kinabalu, Tawau, Sandakan, Labuan, Miri, Sibu, Bintulu, Kuching, and Brunei will be affected by the cancellation starting today, April 18, 2024 at 10am until April 19, 2024 at 8am.
“AirAsia is committed to prioritising safety during this time and has notified all guests affected by the cancellations. Guests who are travelling to/from the affected destinations are encouraged to check their registered email and mobile phones for cancellation notifications,” read a press release issued by AirAsia today on its website.
It went on to say that AirAsia guests travelling to and from the affected destinations can check their latest flight status at airasia.com/flightstatus.
Meanwhile, Bo Lingam, group chief executive officer (CEO) of AirAsia Aviation Group in the press release said: “We understand that this may cause inconvenience to our guests and we apologise for the disruption to their travel plans. However, the safety of our guests and crew is paramount and we appreciate our guests’ understanding and cooperation during this time.
“We will continue to monitor the situation closely and work with relevant authorities including CAAM to assess the conditions for resuming operations to affected destinations.”
Guests affected by the AirAsia situation have the flexibility to reschedule their flights to a new travel date within 30 days of their original departure date, at no additional cost, as long as there are seats available on the same route.
Alternatively, they can choose the credit account option, which retains the flight booking value in the guest’s AirAsia Rewards member account for future travel with AirAsia. New flight reservations can be redeemed within 730 calendar days (two years) of issuance.
“Guests who wish to make booking changes online may do so at airasia.com or AirAsia MOVE (previously known as airasia Superapp). From the categories available, click on ‘Booking Changes’ then ‘Flight Change’ and finally ‘My flight was changed by AirAsia’. From there, simply follow the instructions to make changes to your booking.
“Follow AirAsia on social media @airasia on X and @flyairasia on Instagram or contact our customer support team at support.airasia.com for the latest updates,” AirAsia said. — DayakDaily
