Anthony Loke: Batik Air to offer fixed CNY fare for KL-Sibu, KTM to add more ETS trips

PUTRAJAYA, Jan 12 — Local airlines Batik Air will offer a fixed airfare of RM399 for flights from Kuala Lumpur to Sibu across the Chinese New Year festive period between February 6 and 9, Transport Minister Anthony Loke announced today.

Loke said Batik Air, which previously only flew to Kuching and Kota Kinabalu, would now start scheduled flights to Sibu and Tawau, with economy class tickets also fixed at RM399 for the CNY period.

“Sale of these tickets are on now. This initiative in in addition to the ones I announced last week where AirAsia and the 20 extra flights from Malaysia Airlines from Peninsular Malaysia to Sabah and Sarawak for this upcoming Chinese New Year,” Loke told reporters after his first official address to Transport Ministry (MoT) staff for the year 2024.

Apart from that, Loke said Keretapi Tanah Melayu Bhd (KTMB) the operators of Malaysia’s commercial train service, will be adding six more electric trains (ETS) daily during the same festive period.

There will be four extra routes on the KL Sentral - Ipoh - KL Sentral line from February 7 until February 13. Two additional trips for the KL Sentral - Padang Besar - KL Sentral line will also be added from February 7 until March 10 this year.

“For your information, two out of four of these KL Sentral to Ipoh additional trips will only take two hours meaning it’s direct from KL to Ipoh, so if you want to stop in say Kampar then please be aware which train your taking as this is the express one. The non-express line takes two hours and 40 minutes compared to two hours on the express line.

“In total we are adding around 29,526 extra tickets for the Chinese New Year and the school holiday period. As for the 32 existing ETS services, the total tickets on offer are 10,180 per day.

“All the additional train tickets will be sold from January 15 (Monday) from 12pm onwards. You can purchase these tickets from the KTMB mobile or at the ticketing kiosks at all KTMB’s,” Loke said.

For bus passengers, MoT through the Land Public Transport Agency (APAD) has approved several temporary transition licences, better known by its Malay initials LPS, for non-express bus companies to make the long-haul journeys.

Loke said this will allow buses of different categories to carry passengers home if they meet the set criteria.

Chinese New Year will be celebrated on February 10 and 11.