By DayakDaily Team
KUCHING, Nov 4: Social activist Jeffery Ngui Voon Chiang has urged AirBorneo to introduce a special election travel package offering one-way fares from as low as RM99 to help Sarawakians living outside the state return home to vote in the upcoming Sarawak election.
He said high airfares remained a major challenge for Sarawakians working and residing outside Sarawak, particularly those with family commitments who would need to purchase several flight tickets to return home.
“Financial constraints should not prevent Sarawakians from exercising their democratic right to determine the State’s future,” he said in a statement today.
He proposed that AirBorneo introduce a package under the concept of “Back to the Basic”, with promotional fares starting from RM99 one way for selected routes, subject to seat availability.
Among the proposed features are basic flight tickets without in-flight meals or checked baggage, seat allocation based on availability, and dedicated seat quotas for travel before and after polling day.
“The focus should be on providing more affordable fares so that more people, including low-income earners and financially disadvantaged families, have the opportunity to return home to vote,” he said.
Using a family of four as an example, Ngui said fares of RM99 per person one way would mean a basic travel cost starting from RM396 for a one-way journey.
He said this would be considerably more manageable for families compared with having to pay potentially much higher regular airfares.
Ngui stressed that the proposed initiative should not be viewed merely as a commercial promotion, but also as an expression of AirBorneo’s social responsibility and commitment to the people of Sarawak.
“As Sarawak’s homegrown airline, AirBorneo had an opportunity to play a meaningful role in facilitating the movement of Sarawakians, particularly during an important democratic exercise.
“Do not let airfares become a barrier to the people’s right to choose Sarawak’s future,” he said.
He hoped AirBorneo’s management would give the proposal serious consideration and take proactive steps to introduce the special election travel package.
“Let the tickets be basic, but the impact extraordinary. Bring Sarawakians home to help shape Sarawak’s future,” he added. — DayakDaily
