KUALA LUMPUR: AirAsia has added Kunming, the southwestern capital of Yunnan Province, as a new destination to strengthen its existing 23-route network in China.
The new route, which takes off from Kuala Lumpur, will commence operations on Dec 10 with weekly flights on alternate days Monday to Sunday.
“According to the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA), AirAsia is the largest foreign airline in China at the moment, and we will continue to work hard to maintain this,” AirAsia Bhd chief executive officer Aireen Omar said at a press conference yesterday.
Over the last few years, AirAsia has been reaching into second-tier cities in China, a move that has yielded promising results for the low-cost airline.
“The Chinese truly appreciate it. Diving is getting increasingly popular there and they yearn for beach holidays at East Malaysia and east coast of the peninsular,” AirAsia commercial director Jasmine Lee said.
“Our flights from China give them easy access to out hot spots.”
Likewise, a cooler climate and notable attractions such as UNESCO World Heritage-listed sites Naigu Stone Forest and Suogeyi Village in Kunming are expected to appeal to Malaysians.
Recently, AirAsia announced three other routes Bangkok-Wuhan, Bangkok-Xian and Kuala Lumpur-Nanning, which flies on alternate days Tuesday to Saturday.
Fast-selling tickets were another motivating factor for the airline company to fly into Kunming; Nanning, being a popular business destination for Malaysians, would encourage passengers to connect via Kunming for sight-seeing.
With just four weekly flights to the new destination, impact on earnings is expected to be insignificant.
“Rather, it is the overall frequency and many routes into China that matter. Our audience there makes up half of our top 20 most profitable flights,” she said.
The new route to Kunming will be operated on AirAsia’s Airbus A320 with a capacity of 180 seats.
Source: The Star亚航总执行长艾琳奥玛今日宣佈，亚洲航空將在12月增开吉隆坡到昆明的新航线。
新航线將於12月10日正式开通，每週一、三、五、日起飞。执行飞行任务的客机將全部由拥有180个座位的空巴A320组成。
艾琳奥玛在新闻发佈会表示，根据亚太航空中心的统计报告，亚航目前是中国航空市场载客量最大的外国航空公司。
她说，为了进一步拓展中国市场，增进马中两国人民之间的交往，亚航决定增开吉隆坡直飞昆明的新航线，这也成为亚航在中国的第24条航线。
亚航商业总监李诗颖说，亚航此前共有23条航线，分別从马来西亚的吉隆坡、檳城、亚庇，泰国的曼谷、普吉岛、清迈和菲律宾的克拉克直飞中国的13个城市。昆明新航线的开通，將进一步巩固亚航在中国廉价航空市场的地位。
（星洲日报）
