Bangkuai welcoming tourists from the direct Kunming-Kota Kinabalu flight.
KOTA KINABALU: The resumption of a direct flight from Kunming to Sabah has seen the state being connected to 10 major Chinese cities as a result.
State Assistant Tourism, Culture, and Environment Minister Datuk Joniston Bangkuai welcomed the Kunming flight operated by AirAsia on Thursday morning (Sept 26).
The Kunming-Kota Kinabalu route will operate three times weekly, complementing the airline's other direct routes to Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Shenzhen, Wuhan, Shanghai, Beijing and Ningbo.
In addition, Xiamen Air operates the Fuzhou-Kota Kinabalu route.
While China remains a significant market for Sabah, Bangkuai, who is also the Sabah Tourism Board (STB) chairman, said they were determined to pursue new market opportunities.
“We are in constant discussions with our airline partners, particularly AirAsia, to establish Sabah as a key travel hub in Borneo,” he said, at Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA) here.
“We want to explore new markets like Vietnam, India, Central Asia, and are planning to resume direct flights from Australia, among others.
“With the Nusantara (new Indonesian capital in Kalimantan) development under way, we need to build a strong hub portfolio and capture every market that will lead to more exciting international routes," he said.
AirAsia is working to connect Sabah with more cities, including Shantou (China) and Kaohsiung (Taiwan), with the routes expected to launch in November.
It has also begun promoting a new route from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam to Kota Kinabalu, expected to commence in December.
Other international routes it operates include key South-East Asian destinations such as Singapore, Manila, Jakarta, Bali and Manado, as well as Taipei and Seoul.
Other airlines serving international direct flights to Sabah are Air Busan (Busan-Kota Kinabalu), Scoot (Singapore-Kota Kinabalu), Shanghai Airlines (Shanghai-Kota Kinabalu), China Southern (Guangzhou-Kota Kinabalu), and Royal Brunei (Bandar Seri Begawan-Kota Kinabalu).
Sabah has achieved 70% of pre-Covid-19 pandemic Chinese guest arrival levels so far this year, registering 262,070 visitors from there between January and July.
Bruneians and South Koreans were the next two significant visitor groups, with 124,521 and 106,573 arrivals respectively.
