Comply with SDMC’s flight schedule, airlines told after din over last minute cancellation

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SDMC is regulating flights into the state to ensure that there is sufficient quarantine rooms. — Bernama photo

KUCHING (Jan 4): The State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) has urged airline companies to comply with its approved flight schedule after the cancellation of an AirAsia flight from Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, to Sibu at the eleventh hour yesterday led to an uproar on social media.

It said in a statement today that it had released and communicated with all airlines on the approved scheduled flights entering Sarawak through the state’s Ministry of Transport on Dec 23, 2020.

“The approved flight schedule was arranged to allow for SDMC to prepare and allocate sufficient quarantine rooms for those arriving into Sarawak.

“It is unfortunate that AirAsia did not follow the approved flight schedule provided and had went ahead with the decision to allow the additional flight to enter Sarawak through Sibu from Kota Kinabalu via flight AK6090 on Jan 3,” it said in addressing the public dissatisfaction on social media due to the cancellation of the said flight.

SDMC said it has disassociated itself with AirAsia’s non-compliance with the flight that was cancelled.

“The committee seeks the cooperation of all airlines to comply with the approved scheduled flight issued by SDMC through the Ministry of Transport Sarawak from time to time.

“To curb the Covid-19 pandemic and safeguard everyone from the spread, the support of everyone is required,” it stressed.

SDMC had previously published the approved airlines flight schedule and frequency for public reference.  The schedule is as follows:

For flights coming into the state, Malaysia Airlines has been approved to operate a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Kuching at 4pm arrival time daily, except Tuesday.

The approved flight schedule for AirAsia departing from Kuala Lumpur to Kuching is at 2pm arrival time daily, except Tuesday.

AirAsia flights from Kota Kinabalu to Kuching have been scheduled to arrive at 12pm daily, except Thursday.

Flights from AirAsia travelling from Johor Bahru to Kuching has been fixed to arrive at 10am on Sunday only, while AirAsia flights from Penang to Kuching will arrive every Thursday at 6pm arrival time and flights arriving from Kota Bharu will land every Tuesday at 2pm.

Malindo Air’s flights have also been approved to arrive at Kuching from Kuala Lumpur at 10am daily, except Sunday. Scoot has been permitted to operate a flight from Singapore and to Kuching every Sunday at 7pm.

As for flights coming into Miri, SDMC has stated that Malaysia Airlines has been permitted to operate flights departing from Kuala Lumpur and arriving in Miri at 12.30pm on every Saturday, Sunday and Thursday.

AirAsia flights coming into Miri from Kuala Lumpur have been scheduled to arrive on every Saturday at 4pm, Sunday (5pm), Monday (5.30pm), Tuesday (4pm), Wednesday (5.30pm), Thursday (4pm) and Friday (5.30pm).

Flights from AirAsia flying in from Kota Kinabalu to Miri have been fixed at 2pm arrival time daily and a flight has also been approved to arrive from Johor Bahru at Miri on every Saturday at 6pm.

One MASwings flight has been scheduled to arrive at Miri from Labuan at 9am every Thursday.

For flights flying into Sibu, Malaysia Airlines’ flights have been approved by SDMC to arrive at Sibu from Kuala Lumpur at 11am on every Sunday and Thursday.

AirAsia, meanwhile, has been approved to operate flights from Kuala Lumpur to arrive at Sibu at 11am on every Saturday and Tuesday and also one flight from Johor Bahru arrives at 2pm every Saturday.

For Bintulu, SDMC has permitted Malaysia Airlines’ flights to arrive at the city from Kuala Lumpur at 11.30am on every Saturday, Sunday and Wednesday. AirAsia flights, on the other hand, have been scheduled to arrive from Kuala Lumpur at 1pm daily.

Lastly, MASwings has been approved to operate a flight from Kota Kinablu to Limbang at 4.30pm arrival time on every Sunday.

All arrival time scheduled is on an estimation basis.

Some netizens had expressed their dissatisfaction towards AirAsia and SDMC on social media yesterday after the cancellation of flight AK6090.

A Facebook user, among others, chastised the budget airline company saying: “Kalau nak CANCEL FLIGHT, cancel semua flight pun xpa. TAPI JANGANLAH KAU CANCEL 30 MINIT SEBELUM BERLEPAS!!!” (If you want to cancel flights, it is okay if you cancel all flights. But don’t cancel 30 minutes before departure!).

AirAsia has declined to comment on the matter when contacted.