Malindo To Attract 25,000 Taiwanese Tourists To Malaysia By Sept 2017

From Niam Seet Wei TAIPEI, Sept 10 (Bernama) -- Malaysia's new premium service airline, Malindo Air, aims to attract about 25,000 Taiwanese tourists to Malaysia by September 2017, says Chief Executive Officer Chandran Rama Muthy. He said Taiwanese tourist arrivals in Malaysia reached 450,000 people last year while about 280,000 Malaysian tourists visited Taiwan in 2015. "With the launch of the direct daily flight between Kuala Lumpur and Taipei, we hope it will bring more Taiwanese tourists to Malaysia. "This is also in line with Tourism Malaysia's target of achieving 30 million international tourist arrivals in the next few years," he told reporters after the launch of the Taipei-Kuala Lumpur daily service at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport (picture) here Saturday. Chandran said the airline hoped to achieve between 85 and 90 per cent of passenger load factor for the Taipei-Kuala Lumpur route by year-end. He said based on the company's phone bookings for November and December this year, the passenger load factor amounted to 70 per cent. "Today's flight is almost fully booked and we see great potential in this market and therefore we may increase flight frequency in the near future," he said. He added that the new route would also provide another transit option for Taiwanese tourists travelling to Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Perth and Nepal. Chandran revealed that a new route linking Kota Kinabalu (of east Malaysian state Sabah) and Taiwan was expected to be launched by year-end or early 2017. Meanwhile, President of Malaysian Friendship and Trade Centre Adeline Leong said, with more direct air connectivity between Malaysia and Taiwan, it would help enhance 'people-to-people' relations. "This will subsequently help to boost trade and investment among Malaysia and Taiwan," she said. (photoBERNAMA) --BERNAMA