Kota Kinabalu: AirAsia will launch its new Kota Kinabalu-Shanghai route on Feb. 20, State Minister of Tourism, Culture and Environment Datuk Christina Liew, said.
She said it is heartening to note that this would be the airline’s 11th international flight to Sabah.
“We welcome AirAsia’s inaugural flight from Shanghai on Feb. 21. It is a head start in the auspicious Year of the Dragon in the Chinese Lunar Calendar,” Liew said in a statement.
Thereafter, there would be three weekly flights from Kota Kinabalu to Shanghai (Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday), and likewise, three weekly flights from Shanghai to Kota Kinabalu (Wednesday, Friday and Sunday).
Liew noted that AirAsia’s other 10 international flights to Sabah are from Singapore, Manila, Taipei, Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Wuhan, Beijing, Hangzhou, and Jakarta.
“I understand that it is a daily flight frequency from Beijing to Kota Kinabalu (which was launched in July 2023) for this month (February), and then back to four weekly flights in March this year,” she said.
Based on statistics from the Sabah Tourism Board (STB) Research Division, Liew said tourist arrivals from China increased from 6,463 (January to December 2022) to 78,690 (January to December 2023).
