KUALA LUMPUR: More people are looking forward to air travel, with more than half of them keen on domestic travel following the Malaysian Aviation Commission’s (Mavcom) consumer survey results which were released on Friday.

       Mavcom said the survey, conducted by NielsenIQ, revealed an uptick in anticipation and expectation towards air travel, with 60% of the 1,000 respondents looking forward to travelling domestically.

       Among the reasons cited for the preference for domestic travel included lower cost of travel, high risk of exposure to COVID-19 when travelling internationally and respondents living with high-risk family members.

       The remaining 40% international travel of which nearly three-quarter of them were considering visiting destinations within Asia, with the top three countries being Japan, China and South Korea.

       Mavcom said the survey was to understand the air travel expectations of consumers, post Covid-19.

       The survey was carried out between February and May 2021 involving Malaysian respondents who had travelled at least once in the 12 months prior to the survey being conducted and are willing to travel by air in the next 12 months.

       “The outcome of the survey highlighted that key travel touchpoints within airports need to be redesigned to incorporate crowd control and physical distancing measures, routine sanitisation as well as contactless facilities.

       “The survey also highlighted that the adoption of digital technologies such as paperless travel documents and e-payment facilities, amongst others, were some of the expectations from consumers,” it said.

       Mavcom said the survey underlined that the enforcement of Covid-19 SOPs in creating a safe end-to-end travel experience is imperative in order to boost passenger confidence.

       Mavcom executive chairman Datuk Seri Saripuddin Kasim said: “While Malaysian travellers are still cautious of the evolving circumstances related to the pandemic and are wary of contracting Covid-19, the outcome of this survey indicates that Malaysians are looking forward to resuming air travel in both domestic and international sectors.

       “With the findings of this study, the Commission hopes that the relevant industry players will continue with their efforts to be vigilant and make appropriate improvements at key travel touchpoints to further strengthen public confidence towards air travel as we move further into the reopening of our skies.”