SHAH ALAM – After two years of not being able to go back to their hometown due to Covid-19, Malaysians are enthusiastic to celebrate Hari Raya Aidilfitri this year.
This was more meaningful when the government announced a more relaxed standard operating procedure (SOP) by allowing the public to travel interstate and the public took the chance to purchase flight tickets early to celebrate Aidilfitri with their beloved families.
An AirAsia spokesman said there were five domestic routes that were hot selling this festive season - Kuala Lumpur to Kota Bharu, Kota Kinabalu, Kuching, Kuala Terengganu and Alor Setar.
It was known that every festive season, the traffic to East Coast such as Kelantan and Terengganu would be backed up, with journey that could easily take 17 to 22 hours to reach their destination.
This could be one of the factors why the public chose to travel by air.
For those in Sabah and Sarawak, they would have to board a plane to their hometown, which made the domestic route a top destination during the festive season.
A Malaysia Airlines spokesman said there was a significant increase in ticket sales by 100 per cent this year.
Among the destinations with more than 90 per cent passengers were Kuching, Sarawak, Kota Bharu in Kelantan and Kota Kinabalu, Sandakan as well as Tawau in Sabah.
Despite allegations that airline companies had raised ticket prices during the festive season, it did not break the spirit of Malaysians to go back to their hometown via air travel after two years of being ‘locked-down’ by the pandemic.