Kota Kinabalu: The Sabah tourism industry is recovering steadily, especially visitors from China, since the reopening of borders this year.
“We are delighted to continue working with AirAsia to welcome more travellers to the State,” said Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Christina Liew.
“The impressive loads of AirAsia not only foster stronger international relations and open up new opportunities for economic growth and cultural exchanges but also bring us closer to achieving our goal of registering more than 2.2 million tourist arrivals this year,” she said.
Liew expressed satisfaction with AirAsia’s daily flights from Beijing and four weekly flights from Macau, which will add to the current 100 international flights weekly into Sabah.
“We also appreciate AirAsia’s commitment to increasing flight frequencies and launching additional flight services in support of the Government’s relentless efforts to boost the tourism industry in Sabah,” she added.
Liew commended AirAsia for its recent launch of new routes between Kota Kinabalu and the Chinese cities of Beijing and Macau.
Both the Kota Kinabalu-Beijing and Kota Kinabalu-Macau inaugural flights recorded impressive loads of over 90 per cent.
“The maiden flight from Beijing on July 2 welcomed 172 guests (92 per cent capacity), while the inaugural flight from Macau yesterday (Sunday) carried 169 guests (93 per cent capacity),” said Liew.
AirAsia Malaysia Chief Executive Officer Riad Asmat said the airline was proud with its contribution to the tourism industry in Sabah.
“Kota Kinabalu has always been an important hub for us, and the growth of our Sabah network plays a significant role in our recovery strategy.
“Currently, we operate 21 domestic and international routes to the State, with a total of 300 weekly flights to and from Sabah,” he said.
He said the additional daily flights to and from Beijing, as well as four weekly flights to and from Macau, are expected to contribute significantly to tourist arrivals and boosting the State’s economy.
“Moreover, strong demand for more flights from Kota Kinabalu will encourage us to increase the frequency and add more routes in the future.
“This will not be possible without the support of our industry partners, especially the Sabah Tourism Board (STB), and we would like to take this opportunity to thank them for their continued support,” said Riad.
AirAsia currently operates 14 routes to and from China, with over 104 weekly flights from Kuala Lumpur to Guilin, Quanzhou, Guangzhou, Kunming, Shenzhen, Nanning, Shantou and Macau.
Additionally, there are flights from Kota Kinabalu to Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Wuhan, Beijing and Macau, as well as flights from Johor Baru to Guangzhou.
AirAsia X flies four routes to and from China, with over 22 weekly flights from Kuala Lumpur to Chengdu, Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou.
