WHENEVER I meet random fellow Sabahans in Klang Valley, I ask them when will they “balik” (go back to) Sabah.
“Belum tahu. Tambang mahal bah (Don’t know yet. The fare is expensive),” is the usual answer even from middle-class Sabahans, especially those with families.
The South China Sea separates Peninsular Malaysia and Sarawak and Sabah in Borneo.
I envy Malaysians living in Klang Valley who can balik kampung anywhere in Peninsular Malaysia. If there is an emergency or a celebration, they can drive, take the bus or train to their hometown.
When my good friend suddenly needs to return to Ipoh, she can drive her Proton 210km from Subang Jaya immediately and reach home within two hours and 30 minutes. She spent less than RM200 to drive home and back to Subang Jaya.
But, for us, it is only via flight.
If you are a Sabahan and have an emergency requiring you to be back home as soon as possible, it is an expensive situation.
Take a family of four. Just say the last-minute Kuala Lumpur to Kota Kinabalu ticket is RM1,000 per person; that is RM1,000 x four people = RM4,000.
If a second emergency occurs after you go home for a few days, the cost is doubled to RM8,000.
That’s a true story. Someone I know (a few of them actually throughout the years), living in Subang Jaya, had to return to Kota Kinabalu as soon as possible as her father was on his deathbed. To pay her and her family of four last respects to her father and their grandfather, she bought tickets (about RM1,000 per person).
After a few days, her dad didn’t die as expected. So, she and her family flew back to Kuala Lumpur. The next day, he died, and the daughter had to spend another RM4,000.
Imagine if you are a B40 Sabahan. The RM8,000 is a fortune. You and your family can’t afford to pay their respect.
Some will say if you want an affordable ticket back to Sabah, buy your ticket months ahead. You can plan a wedding reception. But, for a funeral, you can’t.
Lately, I have been flying back from Kuala Lumpur to Kota Kinabalu about once every three weeks for personal reasons.
“Macam kau naik bas (It is like you are taking a bus),” a lifeguard told me at the swimming pool I patronise in Kota Kinabalu when he saw me on Thursday.
I smiled, and I said, “Mahal bah” (It is expensive).”
It is mahal bah. A two-way flight from Peninsular Malaysia to Sabah costs me about RM700. But it can sometimes be RM1,200 or more.
For example, I had to return to Kota Kinabalu on Thursday to handle a last-minute personal matter.
When I clicked my favourite airline two days before I needed to be in my hometown, I was shocked to find that the cheapest flight was RM800 from KL to KK and RM1,600 from KK to KL, which is RM2,400.
I had to forgo taking my favourite airline and look for an affordable option.
I have given up on an airline because even though its tickets seem “cheap,” they are not. Flying that particular airline can become expensive based on my experience and other Sabahans.
If the airline suddenly changes or cancels a flight you bought months ago (the ticket is cheaper when you buy way ahead of your travel date), you will not make it for, say, your sister’s wedding. You will be forced to buy an expensive last-minute ticket.
There are other horror stories, such as being forced to pay for an extra night stay in a hotel near Kuala Lumpur International Airport because your flight is postponed indefinitely.
I gave up on that particular airline when it left me hanging after I covered the 2020 Sabah polls, during which the Government imposed movement control restrictions to stop the spread of Covid-19 soon after polling day. There was no hotline to call to get an answer on its email that it cancelled my flight. I had to line up for more than two hours (roughly the time to travel from KK to KL) to ask a question in the Kota Kinabalu International Airport on my flight status.
For my trip on Thursday, I decided to try out another airline, which was not a budget airline. The fare was RM1,200 for a return flight to be in Kota Kinabalu for 24 hours.
Compare that with the RM200 my good friend spent driving from Subang Jaya to Ipoh and the RM1,200 I burnt flying from Sepang to Kota Kinabalu. Her RM200 was the cost of my “taxi” from Subang Jaya to KLIA to Subang Jaya.
The complaints about costly flights from Kuala Lumpur to airports in Sabah are nothing new. Sabahan politicians have raised the issue.
For example, in April 2023, former Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal said the costly airfares from Kuala Lumpur to Tawau, Sandakan and Kota Kinabalu have been an ongoing concern. He said the issue of expensive flight tickets during festive seasons is a longstanding one that needs to be resolved immediately.
A Sabah politician who included an election promise of RM199 airfares between Kuala Lumpur and Kota Kinabalu for festive seasons on the Pakatan Harapan manifesto during the 2022 General Election had to backtrack on the cheap flight pledge.
It is not only Sabahans who are complaining.
In February, an MP from Sarawak told the Government to act on the recent trend of expensive flight tickets between East Malaysia and Kuala Lumpur.
Serian MP Richard Riot Jaem claimed that he had found one-way flight tickets from Kuching to Kuala Lumpur costing RM2,546.46.
He said expensive flight tickets may stifle integration between the nation’s territories, as people from the peninsula may find it hard to afford to travel to Sabah or Sarawak or vice versa.
“I think it costs around RM1,050 to get from here to Adelaide. A round trip is around RM2,000. But we have to spend RM5,000 to get from Kuching to Kuala Lumpur (and vice versa). It’s too much,” Riot said in the Dewan Rakyat.
I would love to revisit Adelaide. But if I can’t afford it, I can give it a miss. But returning home for an emergency or personal matter, I have no choice but to press click on my credit card purchase to balik kampung.
There must be an affordable way to go home.
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