Blame the government for surge in prices of flight tickets during election - Fomca
SHAH ALAM - The government should review the prices of flight tickets following voters’ complaints on the surge in airfares just minutes after the Election Commission (EC) announced the dates of the 15th General Election (GE15) on Thursday.
Federation of Malaysian Consumers Associations (Fomca) vice-president Datuk K. Koris Atan said the price hike was not a good move as it was affecting the consumers.
“It is the government that allowed airlines to increase the prices of the fares, if the government is not in control of all this, what can the public do?," he told Sinar Daily.
He also expressed disappointment over the skyrocketing airfares (return ticket) from Kuala Lumpur to Sabah and Sarawak.
He urged the government to provide licence and bring in more competitors and aircraft companies as AirAsia and Malaysia Airlines have monopolised the airline industry.
"At the end, it is the consumers who are badly affected. In this case, we should blame the government," he added.
On Thursday, the EC announced that polling for GE15 will be held on Nov 19, which is a Saturday.
Meanwhile, the nomination date falls on Nov 5 and early voting has been fixed on Nov 15.
It was reported that just minutes after the dates were announced, voters saw a hike in flight tickets during the election weekend.
Many had then took to social media their frustrations as they found it difficult to return to their hometown to vote on the day especially in Sabah and Sarawak.
"AirAsia increased its price by 2.5 times more for the booking within the election date. The flight ticket is going to increase again. I spent almost RM500 on a return ticket to my hometown," said Twitter user @thefigurative.
Meanwhile, @ascap23 said "Airasia’s ticket jumped from RM362 plus to RM780 from Kota Kinabalu-Kuala Lumpur after the election date announcement. Then the webpage hanged. Then all the Airasia flight tickets appeared to be fully booked. I think they are updating the price".
