KUCHING, Jan 7: Starting Jan 9, the number of scheduled flights to Sibu and Miri will be reduced.
Minister of Transport Datuk Lee Kim Shin informed that the State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) made the decision after taking into consideration the limited number of hotel rooms available for quarantine purposes and the increasing number of Covid-19 cases in Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah.
“Acting on the SDMC decision, my Ministry has written to MAS (Malaysian Airline), AirAsia and MasWings on Jan 5 on the new approved flights’ schedule which will take effect on Saturday, Jan 9,” he said in a statement today.
From Jan 9, there will only be two scheduled flights from Kuala Lumpur to Sibu per week with MAS operating on Wednesday and AirAsia on Saturday.
However, for Johor to Sibu route, the last flight operated by AirAsia will be on Jan 9 and there will be no more flights for this sector until further notice.
As for flights from Kuala Lumpur to Miri, MAS will operate two times a week on Sunday and Thursday while AirAsia four times a week on Saturday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
For flights from Kota Kinabalu to Miri, AirAsia will operate two times a week on Tuesday and Friday while from Johor only one flight weekly on Tuesday. MasWings will operate the Labuan-Miri route twice weekly on Monday and Thursday.
“In planning the overall flight schedule, each airline is given a different flight timing in order to assist them to have better passenger load for their flight,” Lee explained.
He added that the latest information on flight schedules approved by SDMC has been released to the public via social media in advance so that the public is fully aware of the changes to plan ahead.
“I would like to remind all airlines to only sell flight tickets according to the flight schedule approved by SDMC. This is important to provide reliable flight services to the public.
“In addition, the public are advised to book or purchase flight tickets based on the approved schedule,” he advised.
Lee also reminded airlines not to cancel any flight at the last minute that had been approved to avoid unnecessary problems to the public. -DayakDaily
