SEPANG: It will be tough for airlines to manipulate government-subsidised flight tickets during the festive season for their own benefit, says Anthony Loke.
The Transport Minister said the pricing of the airfares during the festive seasons was being monitored closely by the Malaysian Aviation Commission (Mavcom).
“The government is smart in spending money but do not underestimate our intelligence, thinking that the airlines can easily manipulate the prices.
“It will not happen as the pricing is being monitored by Mavcom and we know exactly how many seats they are claiming,” he said when asked if there were measures put in place to monitor airlines from manipulating the prices and claiming for the flight subsidies.
Loke added that the ministry is aware of the details of each particular flight; how many seats are sold and what price so airlines cannot just artificially increase the prices.
“Because they have an algorithm and price mechanism which they cannot just hide the price and claim from the government.
“A thorough process and audit will be put in place to check all the claims and to be transparent,” he said at the launch of AirAsia fixed fares to Sabah and Sarawak in conjunction with Chinese New Year celebrations on Friday (Jan 5).
The Seremban MP added that a mechanism has been put in place to ensure the claims are genuine.
“Whatever you thought that the airline can artificially increase the prices, no, we had a thorough discussion between our aviation division and Mavcom and talked through the whole mechanism and came out with this,” he added.
