Friday, July 07, 2006

Sabah tourism to cash in on more flights

KOTA KINABALU: With its geographical proximity to other Asean countries, Sabah’s tourism industry stands to gain from having more domestic and direct international flights into Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA).

Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Haji Aman said KKIA has been the second busiest airport in the country after Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

“And in the last five years, the number of international and domestic arrivals increased by 18.7 per cent per annum from 774,475 visitors in 2000 to 1.829 million visitors in 2005,” he said at the launch of AirAsia’s Kota Kinabalu Hub held at a leading hotel here yesterday.

He said domestic tourism accounts for a significant portion of visitor arrivals into Sabah and AirAsia can play a major role in further promoting these figures. From January to May this year, Sabah recorded a total of 701,222 visitors, including 286,038 international and 415, 184 domestic arrivals.

AirAsia’s significant investment in 100 Airbus A320 aircraft signifies the commitment of the airline to continue offering a superior product and quality services to its customers.

And this commitment is further enhanced with the plan to develop two hubs in addition to AirAsia’s total of four hubs in Malaysia, he said.

“In this regard, it pleases me to note that AirAsia has supported the need for more air linkages to Sabah by improving connectivity between Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah through the introduction of new routes and adding more frequencies,” he said.

On this note, Musa who is also Finance Minister congratulated AirAsia on the achievements and success that it has accomplished in the last four years.

“I share the sentiments of many people in Sabah that the establishment of this hub is a cause for celebration,” he added, saying AirAsia has revolutionised air travel with low fares and made flying affordable for everyone, consistent with the tagline ‘Now Everyone Can Fly’.

According to Musa, the introduction of new routes and additional frequencies from Kota Kinabalu hub will certainly create more economic opportunities in terms of tourism and business travel.

As the capital city of Sabah, Kota Kinabalu plays a major role in the state’s economic and social growth, and Musa expressed the hope that AirAsia’s enhanced presence would bring about more significant economic and social development changes particularly in Kota Kinabalu, Sandakan and Tawau.

Musa said AirAsia is on the right track with its strategic expansion plans, and expressed the State Government’s hope that AirAsia would continue with its commitment towards facilitating air travel to Sabah.

“From the very beginning we were all very confident of AirAsia,” he said, adding Sabah is indeed honoured that AirAsia has chosen to develop Kota Kinabalu as its East Malaysia hub.

Also present at the ceremony were AirAsia Berhad chairman Datuk Pahamin Abd. Rajab, Group Chief Executive Officer Datuk Tony Fernandez, Tourism, Culture and Environment Ministry permanent secretary Datuk Monica Chia, Tourism Malaysia state director Iskandar Mirza and Sabah Tourism Board chairman Tengku Datuk Seri Adlin Zainal.

Courtesy of New Sabah Times

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