BY LEONG Z-KEEN & NATASHA JEE
KUCHING: Southeast Asia’s largest low-cost carrier, AirAsia marks the resumption of its direct flight services between Penang and Kuching, as well as between Penang and Kota Kinabalu today (Mar 31).
The flight, AK5432, carrying about 160 passengers from Penang safely touched down at the Kuching International Airport (KIA) on today.
Upon their arrival at 3.55 pm, they were welcomed and greeted by AirAsia Sarawak Affairs head Hamdan Mohamad, Tourism Malaysia Sarawak director Nurul Mohammed Yunus, and the airline staff.
Nurul said resuming direct flights from Kuching to Penang and other states as well was the right call to boost the domestic flight industry for the respective states.
“The initial impact of resuming direct flights would be expanding direct flight options for customers because before this, Sarawakians could only stop and explore Kuala Lumpur.
“With the additional direct flight options added between Kuching, Penang and other cities, of course it boosts the domestic flight industry and it opens up more selections for Sarawakians to spend their holidays exploring cities besides only Kuala Lumpur,” she told reporters.
Meanwhile, Hamdan mentioned that AirAsia now has a total of seven direct flights from Kuching to areas within and outside of Sarawak, mainly cities and towns like Miri, Sibu, Bintulu, Kuala Lumpur, Kota Kinabalu, Kota Bahru and the recently resumed direct flight to Penang.
“Last year in March, the direct flights from Kuching to Penang were temporarily discontinued because of insufficient aircrafts.
“Now that we have more aircrafts, we are able to resume and add more direct flights,” he said.
He also mentioned that Sarawak has international direct flights from Kuching to both Singapore and Jakarta.
On another note, he said AirAsia would include midnight flight options around three days before and after the Hari Raya celebration.
“By adding the extra flights, this will allow customers to be flexible in selecting their flight time during that period,” he said.
He also said most people are opting to buy tickets early to avoid the last minute purchase since there are limited seating during the Hari Raya month.
Earlier, on a short note, the flight Captain Su Miew Gunn also expressed that he is glad to see the resumption of the direct flights from Penang to Kuching.
“It is the first flight from Penang to Kuching today, and we are happy to reconnect again,” he said.
For the flight schedule from Kuching to Penang, there are two daily flights departing from Kuching to Penang at 11.50 am and from Penang to Kuching at 2.15 pm.
Regarding the flight schedule from Kota Kinabalu to Penang, the flight departs daily from Kota Kinabalu to Penang at 8 am, and from Penang to Kota Kinabalu, it departs at 11.05 am daily.
