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 prices arbitrarily ahead of the 15th general election (GE15), says Transport Minister Wee Ka Siong.

He 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.

"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," he said in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

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

The Election Commission yesterday said that polling would be held on Nov 19, while nominations would be done on Nov 5 and early voting held on Nov 15.
 
Meanwhile, Wee said his ministry would conduct 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 currently more than 96,000 active vehicles in the industry with 88,185 being private vehicles and 7,833 taxis," he said.

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

Meanwhile, Wee said Apad and the Road Transport Department were carrying out enforcement action against an e-hailing company that was found to be still operating despite the expiry of its 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 said.