KUCHING: The federal government has been requested to provide more affordable extra flights for Sarawakians travelling back to Sarawak during festive seasons.
Participating in the debate on Budget 2020 in Parliament yesterday, Lanang MP Alice Lau said although there has been a deal between AirAsia and the federal government recently the affordable fares offered by the airline are only for late night flights.
“Among the problems faced by Sarawakians when taking late night flights, they not only travel to towns where the airports are located but to far-away areas and most of the areas are interior areas such as Kapit. Late night flights make it difficult for people living in the interior area to travel as they not only have to travel to the airport, but continue their journey to areas which are located very far away from the airport,” she pointed out.
Hence, she hopes that airlines in the country will do a review on the air fares to Sarawak as many Sarawakians still find going home during the festive seasons hard due to the lack of affordable flights.
One way, Lau suggested, is to offer one fixed and affordable price for all flights during the festive seasons so that everyone gets a fair chance to go home.
“Airlines need not worry about the lack of Sarawakians travelling via air back to Sarawak if they offer fixed and affordable price for all flights during festive seasons. During that time, there are bound to be many Sarawakians who want to go home and flights will always be full,” she said.
In this respect, she hoped the minister in charge will urge other airlines to at least follow what AirAsia has done to help Sarawakians go home during festive seasons.
Lau also commented that there is need to turn Bintulu port into a free zone with integrity as it will only bring benefit to Sarawak in terms of socio-economy.
“With the Bintulu port becoming a free zone, it has the ability to attract more foreign investors to the country and has the potential to emulate the success of other free zone ports in the country,” she said.
At the same time, she also hopes ship building and repairing companies will get loan assistance with low interest rate from the government to help them during hard times.
“There are many ship building and repairing companies located in Sibu. Most of them face problems such as having to buy expensive materials to repair or build ships and uncertain currency exchange value which affects their operation,” she said.
On another matter, Lau praised the success of National Institute of Occupational Safety (Niosh) in revolutionising the occupational safety industry in the country and suggested that more women in the country be involved in the occupational safety industry.
Lau was appointed Niosh chairman earlier this month.