AirAsia Celebrates Inaugural Pontianak-Kuching Flight

6th Jun 2017

Several Malaysian government officials, including Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports Minister Karim Rahman Hamza, Assistant Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture Lee Kin Shin, permanent secretary to the Ministry of Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports Ik Pahon Joyik, STB Chairman Abdul Wahab Aziz, Indonesia’s Consulate General in Kuching Muhammad Abdulah and AirAsia CEO Aireen Omar were present at the Kuching Airport yesterday at 1:50 pm to greet the landing of the inaugural AirAsia flight between Kuching and Pontianak, Indonesia with a ceremonial “water salute”.

Speaking about the new route, AirAsia CEO said Pontianak has become a popular destination among the airline’s guests ever since AirAsia introduced Kuala Lumpur-Pontianak flights two years ago. The airline has flown more than 120,000 guests to Pontianak up to this point. She also added that Kuching is an important hub for the budget airline since AirAsia set up a hub here in 2006.

Aireen said:

We are also preparing to make Kuching one of the most important hubs in this region and look forward to work closely with tourism authorities in Pontianak and Kuching to promote both destinations across our extensive network with over 120 destinations. We currently operate over 468 weekly flights to and from ten destinations such as Miri, Sibu, Bintulu, Kota Kinabalu, Johor Bahru, Penang, Kota Bharu, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and now Pontianak. This August, we will connect Langkawi to Kuching with four weekly flights and hope to introduce more international flights from Kuching this year for the next five years and beyond.

Minister Abdul Karim said:

I have just returned from Guangzhou, China and the feedback I received from the industry players there was that direct air connectivity into Sarawak is the major critical success factor if we want to put tourism as our main contribution towards our economy.

AirAsia will fly seven times per week between Kuching and Pontianak. To celebrate the inaugural flight, the carrier is offering one-way all-in fares from RM89 from today until 18^th June, 2017. These can be booked on AirAsia’s website, mobile website, and mobile app or via Android or iPhone devices and can be used for travel period between 5^th June and to 14^th January 2018.