KUALA LUMPUR, March 9 — The Ministry of Transport (MoT) will hold discussions with airline companies to provide cheaper fares to students, especially to Sabah and Sarawak.

Its minister Anthony Loke said so far only Malaysia Airlines (MAS) had offered a 30 per cent discount on the price of flight tickets to students registered with the MHExplorer programme.

"Among other benefits offered through the programme are an additional 10 kg baggage allowance and special offers for family members and fellow students.

"We will try to discuss this (special packages) with other airlines,” he said during the Minister’s Question Time in Dewan Rakyat today.

He was responding to a supplementary question from Vivian Wong Shir Yee (PH-Sandakan), who wanted to know whether the government plans to offer flight packages at reasonable prices to students from Sabah and Sarawak during semester breaks.

At the same time, Loke said the ministry, through the Malaysian Aviation Commission (Mavcom), will continue to monitor the airfare for all domestic routes, including between Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah.

He added that there are companies that implemented special initiatives to offer flight tickets at low prices, such as AirAsia Aviation Group Limited which had provided 52 additional flights at low fares from Jan 17 to 30 in conjunction with the Chinese New Year celebration.

Meanwhile, Loke said the MOT has no problems with any airline introducing new routes, adding that this would depend on market demand.

"...but I understand that sometimes there needs to be an incentive. Therefore, maybe the state government through the Tourism Action Committee can give some incentives to these airlines so that they can have direct flights from new destinations such as Penang to Terengganu or Penang to Kota Bharu,” he said.

Loke was responding to a supplementary question from Rushdan Rusmi (PN-Padang Besar) on whether the government has plans to add more flights from the West Coast to the East Coast. — Bernama