AirAsia Negotiates Re-Opening Two Air Routes with the Terengganu Government

2nd Jan 2017

The Terengganu government and low-budget airline AirAsia are in the final stage of negotiations for re-opening two air routes between Kuala Terengganu and Singapore, as well as between Kuala Terengganu and Penang.

The new routes will be opened in conjunction with the Visit Terengganu Year 2017 (VTY2017) and should boost tourism in the Terengganu state. As part of VTY2017, Sultan Mizan Zainal Abiding launched yesterday the Visit Beautiful Terengganu programme at the Duyong Marina Resort.

Speaking about the new destinations, state’s Head of Government Ahmad Razif Abd Rahman said:

The re-opening of the routes is part of our efforts to meet the target of drawing 5.5 million tourists in conjunction with VTY2017, besides the aggressive promotions we had undertaken at the two destinations, Singapore and Penang.  We also invite other airline companies to fly here and seek other alternatives like chartering special flights to bring more tourists to the state.

Speaking about the Visit Beautiful Terengganu programme, Mr. Ahmad Razif said that the state government has come up with a calendar of exciting events that will be interesting to both local and foreign tourists.

He also said today at the Sultan Mahmud Airport:

They can choose the events in the calendar through the packages they book for, which can ease their planning according to the dates suitable for them.

AirAsia X Increases Teheran Flights

Meanwhile, AirAsia’s long-haul LCC arm AirAsia X is adding more flights on the Kuala Lumpur-Teheran route.

Arik De, Chief Commercial Officer at AirAsia X said the low-cost carrier decided to make this move based on the steady increase of KL-Teheran load factor and the positive feedback it received from customers. According to Arik, AirAsia X recorded an average load factor on the route of 80%.

He said:

We will raise frequency starting next month onward with four times weekly direct flights to Teheran from Kuala Lumpur.

Expanding the route should also help Malaysia’s plan to improve its investment ties and bilateral trade with Iran. Bilateral trade between Malaysia and Iran was RM3.14 billion in 2015 (US$700 million) and the two governments agreed to double the volume during the last visit of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to Malaysia in October.