Malaysia urges airlines to lower air ticket prices to 'normal' levels

Malaysia's Senior Minister (Security) Ismail Sabri Yaakob on Friday urged airlines to bring down flight ticket prices to levels before the country enforced its movement curbs in March. Datuk Seri Ismail said the Transport Ministry and the Malaysian Aviation Commission (Mavcom) have been tasked to discuss with the airline companies to return air ticket prices back to "normal". He said the decision was taken during a special ministerial meeting that coordinates the implementation of the movement control order (MCO), as they were aware of the high domestic ticket prices between Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah and Sarawak. "In the beginning, the air ticket prices were high because they (airline companies) could not accept full seating capacity due to social distancing measures. The maximum passengers they could accept was just 66%. "But now we have allowed airline companies to operate at full capacity without social distancing measures," he said. Ismail urged the airline companies to return ticket prices to normal levels especially for students, teachers, and higher education institute students who will be resuming their studies.<br/>