Weekly plus 4 more direct international flights to KK over next two weeks.

Date: 13 December 2012

Weekly plus 4 more direct international flights to KK over next two weeks.

Kota Kinabalu: The introduction of four new direct flights to Sabah will further increase foreign arrivals from the Asia Pacific region, Sabah Tourism said, Wednesday. New and reinstated direct flights from Shanghai (12 Dec), Hong Kong (19 Dec), Osaka (26 Dec) and Perth (Jan 1) bring a total of 13 international cities flying direct to Kota Kinabalu, or a seat capacity of more than 18,000 weekly from 11 airlines.

This means four new international direct flights to KK have been reintroduced by MAS within a year of the suspension of four others following the share swap arrangement with AirAsia that had since also been tossed into the dustbin as impractical.

Sabah welcomed one of the four new Malaysia Airlines' flights on 12.12.12, which was the inaugural flight from Shanghai to Kota Kinabalu.  The twice weekly Shanghai-Kota Kinabalu flight is the third international route out of China to fly into the State capital after Hong Kong and Shenzhen.

"Shanghai has a population of 28 million; we recognise the introduction of the Shanghai hub into Sabah as one of the key hubs connecting Sabah to China's financial capital and to provinces in Eastern Region of China namely Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Anhui and Hubei.

"Shanghai is their gateway to Sabah through high speed connectivity," said Sabah Tourism Board Chairman, Datuk Seri Tengku Zainal Adlin. "We are looking to 2013 and beyond. The State Government is drawing strategic plans in increasing air accessibility as 96 per cent of our arrivals arrive by air," he said.

Three other direct routes reinstated by Malaysia Airlines are Hong Kong (Dec. 1) and Perth (Dec. 9) and from Osaka (to be implemented Dec. 20).

Up to October this year, foreign arrivals into the State have increased by more than 14.5 per cent or 779,845, compared to the corresponding period last year.  "Thanks to our partners for helping to make this happen, particularly to the Ministry of Transport and Malaysia Airports Holdings. These combined efforts have made and positioned Kota Kinabalu International Airport (or KKIA) as the busiest airport in Malaysia, after KLIA," said Adlin.

Copyright @2012 Sabah Publishing House Sdn. Bhd.