Shenzhen-KK direct flight launched

Sabah's effort to achieve 500,000 tourist arrivals from China this year received a major boost with the launching of Shenzhen-Kota Kinabalu (KK) direct flight by China Southern Airlines (CSA), which is Asia's largest and the world's fourth largest carrier.查詢班機
The inaugural flight connecting Shenzhen and KK is scheduled to arrive here at 1.40am today (Sept 29). The flight will be operated daily except on Wednesdays.

With this additional connectivity, there will be now a total of 98 weekly flights direct from a total of 10 major and secondary cities in China to Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA).

State Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Christina Liew said this is CSA's second link to KK after successfully connecting KKIA to Guangzhou.
She said in less than three years CSA has increased its flights from China to KK from three to 21 weekly, which make up almost one-fifth of total flights from China to KK.

"This shows the airline's strong confidence in the KK destination," she told a press conference to announce the inaugural flight at her Ministry office in Wisma Tun Fuad Stephens, here, Friday. Consul General of the People's Republic of China in Kota Kinabalu, Liang Caede, and Wang Xu, General Manager of CSA's Kuala Lumpur Office, were also present.

Liew also congratulated CSA for upgrading its aircraft from A320 to A321 for the first five flights due to encouraging response during the opening of sales for the route in mid-August, which reached over 90 per cent of A320's capacity.

"The decision to use a bigger aircraft would bring in additional 200 passengers in the first five flights," she said.

As of July this year, the total arrivals to Sabah increased to 2.221 million or by 5.3pc compared to the same period last year. At least 358,000 or 43.3 per cent of these arrivals came from China, making it the largest market source for arrivals to the State.

"We hope to achieve 500,000 China tourist arrivals by the end of this year. We appreciate the support of Liang who is working with us closely and strengthening Malaysia-China relations," said Liew.

She said up to July, Sabah Tourism estimated that the total tourism receipts had reached RM4.61 billion or +8pc more compared to the same period last year.
"Sabah is on track to achieve RM8 billion in revenue from tourism by end of year. Tourism is the third largest economy for Sabah and we hope it will remain one in the future," he said.