KUCHING, Oct 13: The Sarawak Transport Ministry (MOTS) has released a new flight schedule with increased flight frequency which allow more reasonable and affordable airfares for the public and travellers.
The new flight frequency and schedule for major airports in Sarawak which the airlines had proposed and had been approved by Malaysia Aviation Commission (Mavcom) to date through AeroFile which has taken effect on Oct 8, 2021 onwards is shown in the table below.
“However, we would like to remind all passengers and travellers coming to Sarawak that they must comply strictly with the standard operating procedure (SOP) set by the National Security Council (MKN), Ministry of Health Malaysia (KKM) and Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) to curb the spread of Covid-19 in the State especially in these critical times where interstate travel has been allowed without any restrictions,” said MOTS in a statement today.
MOTS said SDMC had decided on Sept 24 that flight frequency to Sarawak would be gradually increased to support the revival of the economy especially for the tourism sector but with strict compliance to SOP to control the spread of Covid-19 in Sarawak.
On Sept 28, MOTS had engaged with relevant stakeholders especially Mavcom and the federal Ministry of Transport where MOTS had presented the new flight frequency and proposed flight schedule in the meeting.
“The decision of the meeting was Mavcom as the authority will engage with all the airlines on the new flight schedule and take various factors into consideration such as manpower, aircraft mobilisation and flight connectivity.
“Subsequently, Mavcom had engaged with the airlines on Sept 30, 2021 and the airlines were given until Oct 4, 2021 to confirm their flight schedule based on the flight frequency prepared by MOTS through AeroFile to Mavcom. Without the approval of AeroFile, there will be no approval of flights and selling of air tickets,” said MOTS.
In addition, MOTS said the SDMC secretariat is engaging with the airlines, Malaysian Civil Defence Force (APM), Malaysia Airport Holdings Berhad (MAHB), and other relevant stakeholders on the new entry process into Sarawak in order to further strengthen the process with greater application of IT and user-friendliness for passengers and travellers, while on the other hand, improving efficiency for the authority to process data and monitor incoming passengers.
“This will give clear instructions to passengers coming to Sarawak as well as eliminate the congestion and time-consuming process at Sarawak Airports,” said MOTS.
It said this was necessary especially the engagement between relevant stakeholders such as the Sarawak government with the federal government, Mavcom, Civil Aviation Authority Malaysia (CAAM), MAHB, APM, the Resident Offices and the airlines to make sure the new schedule will run smoothly according to plan.
“It is hoped that this will ease the movement of passengers and travellers into Sarawak as we are already in the third Phase of the National Recovery Plan.
“We believe that with this new and greater frequency of flights approved by SDMC, the airlines will offer a reasonable and affordable air fare to the public and travellers,” said MOTS. — DayakDaily
