According to its information chief Chin Vui Kai, most inbound flights from China to Tawau and Sandakan stop over at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
“All AirAsia flights originating from China bound for Tawau or Sandakan should be allowed to layover at Kota Kinabalu international airport and not at KLIA.
“Presently, there are only two layover flights in Kota Kinabalu to Sandakan and Tawau from Guangzhou and Wuhan,” he said in a statement here today.
Flights from Shenzhen, Kunming, Hangzhou and Taipei have to make stopovers in Kuala Lumpur before proceeding to Tawau and Sandakan.
Chin urged AirAsia to change the system to make it less of a burden for Sabahans.
“If these connecting flights destined for Tawau and Sandakan have stopovers in Kota Kinabalu instead of Kuala Lumpur, flight time and ticket costs could be reduced,” he said.
For example, he said people travelling from Shenzhen to the east coast will have to fork out between RM200 and RM300 more if the stopovers are in KL.
This is in addition to the longer time spent in reaching their destinations, he added.
By Durie Rainer Fong
