Mavcom to regulate flight ticket prices ahead of GE15

The Malaysian Aviation Commission (Mavcom) will regulate the prices of flight tickets to ensure that airlines do not hike up prices arbitrarily ahead of the 15th general election (GE15), Transport Minister Wee Ka Siong said.

Although flight ticket prices would normally increase according to the dynamic price mechanism if there was an event involving a large number of passenger movements, Mavcom would take action if airlines were found to have raised prices against the set conditions, he added.

"Based on the dynamic pricing mechanism for any airline in the world, the earlier it (the ticket) is booked, the cheaper it is and the closer to a date or event, the price will be higher," Wee said when met at the launch of the Taxi4U application at the Land Public Transport Agency’s (APAD) central region office in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

He was commenting on allegations that airline ticket prices had doubled following the announcement of the GE15 polling date.

E-hailing service study

The Election Commission (EC) announced yesterday that polling for GE15 would be held on Nov 19, while nominations would be done on Nov 5 and early voting on Nov 15.

Wee also announced that his ministry would be conducting a study next year to empower taxi and e-hailing services in an effort to improve the regulation of the two services.

He said the study would also examine solutions to deal with issues raised by industry players such as market sharing and fairer fare pricing methods for both services.

"Regulating these two industries is important, considering that there are more than 96,000 active vehicles in the industry with 88,185 being private vehicles and 7,833 taxis," Wee added.

According to him, the study will be led by APAD in collaboration with the Malaysia Institute of Transport.

Wee also said APAD and the Road Transport Department were carrying out enforcement action against an e-hailing company that was found to still be operating despite an expired company licence.

"Any company that is suspected of carrying out e-hailing activities without complying with the licence conditions will be asked to provide an explanation... this is done to ensure the safety of passengers," he added.

- Bernama

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