Air Fares For Sabah And Sarawak Unlikely To Be Reduced

KUCHING -- Air fares for local destinations in Sabah and Sarawak will not be reduced further because they are already heavily subsidised, the state assembly was told today.

State Assistant Minister for Tourism Hamden Ahmad said that although the Sarawak government welcomed any move to reduce the air fares, particularly those for MasWing, a subsidiary of national carrier Malaysia Airlines (MAS), it was unlikely to happen.

The companies concerned needed to make profit to continue to be operational, he said in reply to a supplementary question from Andy Chia Chu Fatt (BN-Pujut).

Chia had proposed a review of air fares to encourage domestic tourism, saying that some of the fares, especially those for destinations within Sarawak, were still expensive.

"For example, the return air fare for Kuching-Miri costs about RM600 while that for Sibu-Miri costs about RM400," Chia said.

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