RM20 Million, Festival Fare Caps, And A Minister Who Says Price Caps Risk Airline Pullout
Anthony Loke has defended the government’s decision not to impose year-round fare caps on domestic flights, warning that forcing airlines to fly below cost could trigger service cuts — a position that has drawn attention for effectively leaving pricing power in the hands of carriers.
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Transport Minister Anthony Loke has revealed that the government lacks the budget to impose year-round price caps on domestic flights.
Despite spending over RM20 million annually to subsidise fares during major festivals, Loke says extending price controls is financially unfeasible.
His reasoning is straightforward: if you force airlines to charge less than it costs them to fly, they’ll just stop flying those routes or leave the business entirely.
That would be worse for regular people than paying high ticket prices, because then there’d be no flights at all.
“Airlines can choose not to fly,” Loke has argued, pointing out that airlines are businesses, not charities, and with fuel costs staying high worldwide, ticket prices have to go up sometimes.
Prices aren’t fixed either — they change depending on how many people want to fly, what time of year it is, and how close you are to your flight date.
The closer you are to the departure time, the higher the price tends to be.
@richard_riot_jaem Pada 29 Februari lepas semasa membahaskan usul Titah Diraja di Dewan Rakyat, saya turut membangkitkan berhubung tiket kapal terbang ke Sarawak ang terlalu mahal dan tidak masuk akal setiap kali tiba musim perayaan. Saya amat berharap agar kementerian berkenaan dapat mencari jalan penyelesain sewajarnya agar ia tidak membebankan rakyat. Bayangkan kalau satu keluarga besar yang mahu pulang ke Sarawak untuk sambutan perayaan, berapa ribu kos yang terpaksa mereka keluarkan?
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The Holiday Exception — And Its Cost
This is not the first time Loke has defended against price caps.
As far back as 2022, Loke made similar arguments, saying that capping flight tickets would ‘adversely affect the airlines’ and that ‘no airline operator will want to operate if it’s a losing effort.’
His reasoning is consistent, but the government’s actions during holidays suggest price caps are possible — just not affordable year-round.
During major festivals — Chinese New Year, Hari Raya, Gawai/Harvest Festival, Christmas, and others — the government does step in.
They cap how much airlines can charge, and pay the extra cost to make up the difference.
This costs over RM20 million a year; Loke admits the government cannot extend this year-round as it would place an unsustainable burden on public finances.
In other words, price caps are financially feasible during festivals — the government simply cannot afford to extend them throughout the year.
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RM20 Million Is The Ceiling — And The Telling
For most of the year, travellers have no protection.
Book a flight in March? Full market price. August? Whatever the airline charges.
Only during major festival windows — and only for a limited period before each — does the government step in.
For city dwellers with alternatives (buses, cars, trains), this might be manageable.
But for people in Sabah and Sarawak with no other way to travel, it means absorbing whatever costs airlines set for the majority of the year.
The government’s admission that it cannot afford year-round caps raises a harder question: if RM20 million annually is too much for the national budget, what does that say about the priority given to transport accessibility for remote communities?
Source: Sin Chew
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