Langkawi, 29th April 2022 – A total of four direct flights had taken off from Singapore to Langkawi today, one of them being flight AK733 belonging to the nation’s multinational low-cost airline, AirAsia Berhad. The flight had safely landed at Langkawi International Airport (LIA), taking 180 passengers from the Lion City into the Mahsuri Island.
“The four-time-per-week scheduled flights are part of the direct flights that had once ceased operating after the international borders were closed in 2020. As they were reopened on the 1st April 2022, Scoot Air has started its weekly four direct flights from Singapore to Langkawi. With the recent addition by AirAsia, we are estimating to receive an average of 245 flights here for every week from now on,” said YBrs. Tuan Nasaruddin bin Abdul Muttalib, Chief Executive Officer of LADA when met during the reception of AirAsia’s first Singapore – Langkawi direct flight arrival at LIA.
He certainly hopes that the increase in flight frequencies would help to facilitate and boost the arrival of tourists into Langkawi.
“Until 31st March 2022, Langkawi had recorded a grand total of 574,260 tourist arrivals, whereby 45 percent out of this number had entered Langkawi by air. We are expecting that the number of international visitors would continue to increase with the availability of direct flights to Langkawi, especially with the higher Singapore currency exchange rate nowadays,” he further added.
Chief Executive Officer of AirAsia Malaysia, Riad Asmat commented that the airline company is pleased to welcome their first international flight into Langkawi today with full capacity.
“Langkawi not only plays an important role in the nation’s tourism revival starting with the travel bubble last year but also serves as the catalyst for our service resumption post-pandemic. Besides our four weekly flights from Singapore, we also have 107 weekly flights to the island from six domestic routes in May and hope to continue to increase the frequency as demand grows. On top of our flights with great value, our AirAsia Super App is also offering many lifestyle products and services to those visiting Langkawi including hotels, AirAsia Travelmall which enables duty free items to be delivered directly to your hotel, AirAsia Ride and more. These would not only help contribute to the economic growth in Langkawi but also provide more job opportunities for the people here,” he said.
“We look forward to working hand-in-hand with LADA and all other industry players in Langkawi to offer the AirAsia way of life, and continue to make Langkawi the top holiday and shopping destination in Asia.”
To encourage the entry of more charter flights into Langkawi, LADA has also allocated RM300,000.00 under Langkawi Charter Flight Programme incentive. This caters for flight companies that provide charter flight services into the island on a first-come, first-served basis.
Meanwhile, Langkawi has also been the preferred destination for MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions) activities. Until April 2022, six MICE groups with 574 participants in total had conducted their activities here, whereas four more groups with an estimated amount of 1,300 participants are planning to do so in the second and third quarter of 2022.
LADA will stay committed in its endeavour to revive the once badly affected Langkawi tourism sector. Other plannings that have been arranged and solidified include conducting robust domestic and international promotional activities, increasing the networks of high-potential direct flights, implementing targeted marketing for high-end tourists, and creating new tourism products including the geo-tourism based ones to attract more tourists into visiting this island.
