KOTA KINABALU – The spat between the past and present transport ministers over airfares between Kuala Lumpur and Sabah is doing little for Sabahans working in the peninsula who still find flight tickets too pricey during the Hari Raya Aidilfitri festive season.
They said airfares remain costly, even as Transport Minister Anthony Loke and his predecessor Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong nitpick over the actual prices.
The Sabahans most affected are those earning low wages in jobs in the peninsula and for whom a ticket costing RM2,000 or more is still considered too expensive.
Single mother Anna Asmael from Sandakan told The Vibes she will not return home for Raya this weekend as the ticket prices are beyond her means as a factory worker in Kuala Lumpur.
She will not see her two sons aged 11 and 13 this time around, but will plan for a trip back when airfares are cheaper outside of the festive season.
“The price now is over RM2,000. I tried to book my flights early but had to get my leave approved first.
“By the time it was approved, it was already too late. The prices have already become too expensive,” she told The Vibes, adding that this was not the first time this had happened.
Anna described airfares as “absurd” and said it is better to take leave outside of festive seasons when ticket prices are cheaper.
“I will then have more money I can spend on my family,” she said, adding that she plans to return to Sandakan for her son’s birthday.
She said the spat between Loke and Wee is futile and does not help solve the real problem.
“For me, they are just fighting to show who is at fault and who is not doing their job right.
“Neither of them is providing a solution. Sabahans would not have to go through all of this if we did not have to move to the peninsula to find work,” she said.
Another Sandakan native, Sheena Rashid Kamsiran, will not return home this year from Kedah, where she works with her husband, who is also from Sandakan.
Both of them have decided not to return to Sabah for Raya as air tickets would cost RM6,909 for three persons, including their daughter, for an Alor Star-Sandakan flight.
Sheena said she had skipped going home for Raya many times in the past due to pricey flight tickets.
“It's the price of an umrah package for one person. It would be better if they (Loke and Wee) found solutions instead of fighting. This (higher ticket prices) happens every year.
“They could control the prices, right?” Sheena asked.
Meanwhile, a civil servant working in Sandakan who wanted to be known as Kajai said he and his family will not be returning to his hometown, Melaka.
He said he would first have to fly to Kuala Lumpur, which for four people would cost him RM4,800.
Kajai said he had wanted to apply for the flight warrants available to civil servants, but was rejected as there had been too many other applications for the entitlement.
“The last time I returned for Raya was before the pandemic in 2019,” he said, adding that he had not been home for four years now.
Flight tickets from Kuala Lumpur to Kota Kinabalu, Sandakan, or Tawau tend to be more expensive than the other way round.
Loke and Wee’s spat began when the latter claimed that a round-trip economy class ticket between Kuala Lumpur and Tawau on Malaysia Airlines (MAS) was RM3,138.
Loke disputed this after checking with MAS, saying Wee’s price quote was closer to business class tickets, which were even lower than the price cited.
He added that economy class tickets on the pre-Raya date Wee had selected had actually been sold out.
It then emerged that Wee had been checking MAS ticket prices on the AirAsia Super App, which drew scorn from social media users, as well as a jibe from Loke that this was akin to wanting to eat KFC but going to McDonald’s instead. – The Vibes, April 17, 2023
Additional reporting by Jason Santos
