KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 5): Malaysia Airlines Bhd is reducing its air fares by RM35 per passenger on all its flights out of KLIA to any destinations in Asean, from Jan 1, 2017.

This is to celebrate the new year and in anticipation of the equalisation of the passenger service charge (PSC) at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) in Sepang and the other terminal, klia2 (previously called low cost carriage terminal or LCCT), on the same day.

The Malaysian Aviation Commission had in October announced that a new PSC tier will be introduced for travel to Asean countries at RM35 per departing passenger. Currently, the PSC rate for international flights, including Asean countries, is RM65 for international airports and RM32 for klia2.

"The savings will be passed on to passengers traveling with the airlines and [who] have already had an even better impact than expected, with tremendous group bookings from the Asean region spiking by almost 400%. This will be a great boost for the airline and for [the] Malaysian tourism in general," said its group chief executive officer Peter Bellew in a statement today.

“Our aim is to be the airline of choice to travel to, from and around Malaysia and Asean. With the revised PSC, we're able to bring people together with our competitive fares," he added.

The sale period, which starts on Jan 1, 2017, will offer fares from as low as RM99 for domestic and Asean travels. This is for the travel period beginning Jan 1, 2017.