Cathay Pacific has stated that its decision to waive rebooking fees for flight tickets booked on the polling day of the 14th general election was merely to better serve its Malaysian customers.

The airline said this in response to Deputy Home Minister Nur Jazlan Mohamed’s remark that the waiver was intended to effect “regime change” in Malaysia.

“We are aware of customers’ current needs and would like to provide more value and flexibility to our passengers when they choose to fly with us,” a Cathay Pacific spokesperson told Malaysiakini.

Nur Jazlan had taken to Twitter yesterday to question the motive behind the waiver.

“Wow. Good marketing move by them. Didn’t know that regime change is part of their business plan,” Nur Jazlan (photo) said.

Last week, the Hong Kong-based airline announced that it would be offering Malaysian citizens the option to rebook and reroute their flights for free in light of the looming polls.

“If the election date falls within the passenger's inbound or outbound travel date, one change is permitted for all tickets, including those with restrictions on the date change,” it said.

According to the travel advisory, passengers would also be allowed to delay their flights for up to two months from the original date of travel.

To qualify for the fee waiver, Malaysian citizens would need to make their flight ticket changes within a week of the announcement of the GE14 date.

Cathay Pacific noted, however, that the waiver would not be applicable to fare or tax differences should the new date fall into higher subclass or seasonality, with all surcharges to apply as per purchased flight ticket fare rules.