Malindo Air Continues Expansion To Hanoi

From Norshazlina Nor'azman HANOI, Sept 2 (Bernama) -- Frequent flight connectivity between Kuala Lumpur and Vietnam is expected to boost tourism and strengthen ties between the two countries, said Malaysian Ambassador to Vietnam Zamruni Khalid. Malindo Air's new Kuala Lumpur-Hanoi route would result in higher Vietnamese tourists arrivals in Malaysia, he told reporters, here Thursday after welcoming the airline's inaugural flight to the city. Hanoi is Malindo Air's second destination in Vietnam - in January it begun twice daily flights to Ho Chi Minh City. "In 2015, a total of 229,626 Vietnamese travelled to Malaysia ... for this year, we expect 280,000 tourists to visit Malaysia and we believe frequent flights will help," he said. Malindo Air is using the Boeing 737-800 aircraft for its daily flight to Hanoi. Malindo Air Public Relations and Communication director Raja Sa'adi Raja Amrin said the route is part of the airline's international network expansion, bringing its current route network to 40 destinations in 13 countries. He said Vietnam's market had a lot of potential and Malindo Air’s more frequent flights to the country would certainly enable Malaysia to attain its target of attracting 36 million international visitors by 2020. Raja Sa'adi said the airline would work closely with Tourism Malaysia and Vietnamese travel agents to design promotional and shopping packages. He said promotional fares for the new route start from US$51.11 (RM209) for Economy Class and US$271.11 (RM1,109) for Business Class one-way all-inclusive, and include perks such as free baggage allowance, in-flight entertainment and meals. Malindo Air flight OD571 departs daily from Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) at 9.15am and arrives at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi at 11.25am local time (Hanoi is one hour behind Kuala Lumpur). The return flight will depart Hanoi at 12.15pm and arrive at KLIA at 4.35pm. --BERNAMA