KUCHING: The Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) has clarified that the cancellation of AirAsia Flight AK6090 from Kota Kinabalu to Sibu on Sunday (Jan 3) was due to the airline’s failure to comply with the approved flight schedule.
“For the public’s information, the SDMC had released and communicated with all airlines on the approved scheduled flights entering Sarawak through the Ministry of Transport Sarawak (MOTS) on Dec 23 last year.
“The approved flight schedule was arranged to allow for SDMC to prepare and allocate sufficient quarantine rooms for those arriving into Sarawak,” it clarified in a statement on Monday (Jan 4), following the recent public outburst of dissatisfaction on social media pertaining to the matter.
SDMC explained that it was unfortunate that AirAsia did not follow the approved flight schedule provided and had gone ahead with the decision to allow the additional flight to enter Sarawak through Sibu from Kota Kinabalu (AK6090) on Jan 3.
“Therefore, SDMC would like to disassociate with the attempt made by AirAsia on the non-compliance scheduled flight that was cancelled,” it added.
The committee further seeks the cooperation of all airlines to comply with the approved scheduled flight issued by SDMC through the MOTS from time to time.
“To curb the Covid-19 pandemic and safeguard everyone from the spread, the support of everyone is required,” it concluded.
The approved flights to Sarawak by SDMC are as follows: