Singaporeans, admit this: you’d have once booked a flight from JB or KL to fly to your destination simply because it’s cheaper to fly from these airports.
After all, a bus ride to JB is less than $2, and one to KL can be as low as $20—still beats flying from Changi Airport.
You can even have some goody food in Malaysia before flying off.
But come next month, you might need to go back to the drawing board and calculate if you’re indeed saving some money when you do that.
Because there’s going to be a departure tax when you fly out of Malaysia from 1 September 2019.
RM8 to RM150 Departure Tax to be Imposed from 1 September 2019 for Anyone Flying Out of Malaysia
Since last year, the Malaysia government has proposed implementing a departure tax for people flying out of Malaysia. The intention is to encourage domestic tourism.
On 31 July 2019, the numbers are out: it turns out that the tax would be split into two types: Flying to ASEAN counties, which is cheaper, and Flying to Non-ASEAN Countries, which is more expensive.
The ASEAN countries are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
If you’re flying to ASEAN countries, you’ll need to pay a departure tax of RM8 ($2.65) if you’re flying economy or RM50 ($16.56) if you’re flying non-economy.
If you’re flying to non-ASEAN countries, you’ll need to pay a departure tax of RM20 ($6.62) if you’re flying economy or RM50 ($49.68) if you’re flying non-economy.
Yes, so essentially, you’re just going to pay an extra $2.65 if you went to JB to take a flight to Thailand.
The highest fee of $50 only applies to people who are flying non-economy to non-ASEAN countries, which, given the flight ticket price to these places, should be small change.
(This is also why it’s important that you shouldn’t just read the headline!)
There are some people who are exempted from paying:
- Anyone below 24 months old
- Passengers on transit flight through Malaysia in less than 12 hours
- Aircraft crew
- Drivers / riders / pillion riders / passengers of personal-use vehicles
Anyone who fails to pay the departure levy where applicable may be fined up to RM500,000, imprisoned up to three years or both.
Changi Airport Also Got Fees Lah
Lest you’re not aware, our dear Changi Airport also have departure charges, and it’s rather high: since 1 April 2019, the total departure charges we have to pay is $49.80, though this fee is for Changi Airport.
However, we won’t see this number as it’s usually already included in our flight ticket. This explains why the departure tickets are often way more expensive than the arrival tickets.
Aren’t you glad that budget airlines exist?
Here’s a simplified summary of the South Korea martial law that even a 5-year-old would understand:
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