AirAsia Malaysia (AK) has confirmed plans to
resume direct flights between Kuala Lumpur (KUL) and Shantou
(SWA), China starting 16 June, and to launch a new service between Kota
Kinabalu (BKI) and Beijing Daxing (PKX) on 1 July 2023.
AirAsia
will reconnect Kuala Lumpur to Shantou starting with two weekly
flights in June, increasing to four weekly flights in July.
The airline will fly from Kota Kinabalu to Beijing Daxing for
the first time with seven flights per week.
The new
connections
follow the recent resumption of flights to/from Shenzhen,
Guangzhou, Nanning, Wuhan, Kunming, Macao and Hong Kong served by
AirAsia Malaysia (AK) and complementing the medium-haul connectivity to Shanghai, Hangzhou,
and Beijing Daxing served by AirAsia X Malaysia (D7).
“We are pleased to restart service to Shantou.
First introduced in 2016,
Shantou is one of our most popular destinations, where we flew
about 340,000 guests to/from the coastal city until the end of
2019,” said Riad Asmat,
AirAsia Malaysia CEO. “In addition, we are also thrilled to
announce the commencement of the new route from Kota Kinabalu to
Beijing Daxing,
of which we will be the only airline connecting Sabah state
capital directly to the capital of China. China has always
been one of our most important key markets. The two routes will
contribute about 10% additional capacity to our China network, and
we remain committed to expanding the connectivity to Malaysia
further, which is a popular destination for Chinese tourists… We hope that our vast network will contribute to
the Ministry of Tourism Arts and Culture’s target of 16.1 million
international tourist arrivals this year.”
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As a group, AirAsia
currently flies to 35 routes in China with a total of 287 weekly
flights from Malaysia, Thailand and Philippines in May, with plans
to increase the number of weekly flights to 317 with the addition
of Kuala Lumpur to Shantou, Kota Kinabalu to Beijing Daxing,
Bangkok (Don Mueang) to Xi’an and Cebu to Shenzhen between June
and July.
AirAsia Malaysia (AK) currently flies 11 routes
from Kuala Lumpur to Guangzhou, Kunming, Shenzhen, Nanning, Macao
and Hong Kong; from Kota Kinabalu to Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Wuhan,
and Hong Kong; and from Johor Bahru to Guangzhou.
AirAsia X
Malaysia (D7) flies three routes from Kuala Lumpur to Shanghai,
Hangzhou and Beijing Daxing.
AirAsia Thailand (FD)
currently flies 16 routes from Bangkok (Don Mueang) to Chongqing,
Chengdu, Changsha, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Kunming, Shenzhen, Wuhan,
Nanjing, Macao and Hong Kong; from Chiang Mai to Beijing Daxing,
Changsha, Hangzhou and Hong Kong; and from Phuket to Hong Kong.
AirAsia X Thailand (XJ) flies one route from Bangkok
(Suvarnabhumi) to Shanghai.
AirAsia Philippines (Z2) flies four
routes from Manila to Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Macao and Hong Kong.
