KL International Airport Wins Double Awards At Routes Asia 2018

By Anthony Tan

VIRGIN Communications  

email: anthonykhtan@yahoo.co.uk

 

Overall Winner: KL International Airport

Malaysia Airports’ significant contribution to the growth of the Malaysian aviation industry was acknowledged when KL International Airport (KLIA) received the prestigious Routes Asia 2018 Marketing Awards for the Overall Winner and Over 20 Million Passengers categories, beating other hubs in the region.

The Marketing Awards was held conjunction with Route Development Forum Asia 2018 or Routes Asia in short, which was held in Brisbane, Australia on 19 March, is regarded as prestigious in the aviation industry because of its unbiased judging by the participating airlines planning community that gives its vote. 

Business In Session

Thanks to these airlines recognise the outstanding marketing services that have supported the launch of new air routes or the development of existing services, KLIA emerged the proud winner of two awards.

Despite the global challenging economic landscape in 2017, KLIA showed an impressive scorecard, securing nine new passenger airlines that flew to Malaysia’s capital city and launching 25 new routes.

Overall, passenger traffic grew by 11.2% to 58.5 million, with the hub recording an additional 30,535 commercial aircraft movements to contribute to a total of 386,054 movements last year.



Mohamed Sallauddin,

General Manager of Airline Marketing

Mohamed Sallauddin, Malaysia Airports general manager of airline marketing, considers this a “fantastic achievement and tremendous recognition of the success we have achieved so far”.

He adds, “Over the past two years we have reimagined how we work with airlines and this rewards the effort the team has made.

“We have come up with a series of coherent programmes for our carriers and the international ones we are pursuing. We will continue to work hard with the aim of hopefully winning an award at World Routes in Guangzhou.”

Before leaving for this event, Sallauddin had tipped MICE Malaysia Beyond that the last time KLIA won Routes Asia Marketing Awards was in 2009 under the Southeast Asia category. In that year, Singapore Changi Airport came in as “Highly Commended”. 

Destination Category: Highly commended - Japan National Tourism Organisation 

We were certainly happy for Sallauddin when he received the two awards this year. On hearing the news, Malaysia Airports managing director Datuk Badlisham Ghazali was overjoyed with KLIA’s two wins at this highly regarded regional heat of Routes Asia 2018 Marketing Awards.  

Malaysia Airports managing director
Datuk Badlisham Ghazali

We met him recently at the ground-breaking ceremony of Senior Aerospace Upeca facility at Subang Aerotech Park prior to the awards, Badlisham told MICE Malaysia Beyond that Malaysia Airports had put in a lot of hard work into positioning KLIA as a regional hub to be reckoned with.

When we met him recently at the ground-breaking ceremony of Senior Aerospace Upeca facility at Subang Aerotech Park prior to the awards, Badlisham told MICE Malaysia Beyond that Malaysia Airports had put in a lot of hard work into positioning KLIA as a regional hub to be reckoned with.

As can be seen, the airport operator has been innovative in coming out with its airline marketing strategies to promote the desired destinations. Its collaboration with Tourism Malaysia last year in the Joint International Tourism Development Programme saw the two matching the investments made by the airlines, trade and business partners in marketing campaigns that drive inbound tourism.

Malaysia Airports also undertook several missions to Europe, ASEAN, South Asia, India and China to meet up with over 30 airlines at their headquarters to market KLIA as a fast-growing hub besides participating in major travel trade shows to discuss with travel agents and airlines to bring in more charter flights into Malaysia.

As aptly put by Steven Small, brand director of Routes, “The results that KLIA achieved in 2017 speak for themselves. The relationships that they have fostered with their airline and tourism partners, showcase how a collaborative approach delivers remarkable growth.”

As the overall winner, KLIA will be automatically shortlisted for the World Routes Marketing Awards in Guangzhou on 17 September.

Here’s the full list of Routes Asia 2018 Marketing Awards:

Overall Winner: Kuala Lumpur International Airport

Over 20 million passengers

_{Winner: Kuala Lumpur International Airport}

Highly commended: Singapore Changi Airport 

4 – 20 million passengers

Winner: Adelaide Airport
Highly commended: Auckland Airport

Under 4 million passengers

Winner: Vladivostok International Airport

Highly commended: Townsville Airport

Destination

Winner: Cook Islands Tourism Corporation

Highly commended: Japan National Tourism Organization 

The news is out! Routes Asia 2019 will be held in Cebu, Philippines from 10-12 March.


Over To You Cebu - ROUTES ASIA 2019

*   Note: Pictures taken from Route Asia 2018 Supplies

Wings Air Indonesia Launches Daily Flight From Pontianak To Miri

By Anthony Tan

VIRGIN Communications

email: anthonykhtan@yahoo.co.uk

Wings Air Indonesia ATR72-600

Wings Air, a subsidiary of low-cost airline Lion Air Group, has launched a daily flight from Pontianak, West Kalimantan’s capital city to Sarawak’s second largest city Miri on 15 March. This is Wings Air second destination after the successful launch of its flight to Sarawak’s capital city Kuching in January. 

Wings Air’s daily flight from Supadio Airport in Pontianak, which starts at 3:30 pm (local time) is estimated to arrive at Miri International Airport at 6:20 pm (local time) while its return flight from Miri, a coastal city that borders with Brunei Darussalam in the island of Borneo, will depart at 6:50 pm and to arrive in Pontianak at 9:40 pm.

Wings Air will use the turbo prop ATR 72-600, which can accommodate 72 passengers for this route.

It currently flies to over 107 destinations both domestically and internationally with its frequency reaching 300 flights daily.

The airline, which has a fleet of 54 ATR 72-500/600, is expected to add another 20 aircraft this year.

Miri Airport

Lion Air's operational director Captain Daniel Putut says with the opening of the Pontianak-Miri route, people could travel between the two cities in just two hours. It is much quicker than driving, which takes 16 hours, and is also quite affordable at around Rp700,000 (about RM230) one-way.

Via Pontianak, which offers connections to other Indonesian destinations such as Jakarta, Batam, Semarang, Surabaya, Balikpapan, Ujung Pandang, Bandung, Ketapang, Sintang and Putus Sibau, they are now more options for air passengers from Miri.

On hand to welcome the recent inaugural flight with 51 passengers to Miri was the Sarawak state Assistant Minister

Sarawak’s Assistant Minister of Tourism, Arts and

Culture, Lee Kim Shin (second from left)

posing with Lion Air officials 

of Tourism, Arts and Culture Datuk Lee Kim Shin and Sarawak Tourism Board (STB) acting CEO, Mary Wan Mering.

Mary sees Indonesia, which contributes about 60% to Malaysia’s medical tourism sector, as a very important market for Kuching and Miri, which have unique products for leisure, medical and educational tourism.

Miri, for instance, has three main private hospitals that promote medical tourism. They are Borneo Medical Centre, Miri City Medical Centre and Columbia Asia Hospital that cater for medical tourists from Pontianak and the surrounding areas.

2018 is also Visit Miri Year with more than 30 events lined up such as the Miri City International Deep-Sea Fishing Tournament (May 10-13). This is an initiative by the Miri City Council in collaboration with Miri Resident Office; Miri District Office; STB; Ministry of Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports; Sarawak Forestry Corporation and other local non-government organisations.

Sarawak Tourism Board (STB)

acting CEO, Mary Wan Mering.

With the connectivity offered by the Miri-Pontianak route, hopefully STB’s two major annual international events – the Borneo Jazz Festival in Miri (May 11-12) and Rainforest World Music Festival in Kuching (13-15 July) will be able to woo more Indonesians to attend these two events this year. 

The inaugural flight was also welcome by natives

icons in traditional costumes of Sarawak

Mary hopes the new route will help Sarawak achieve its arrival target for 2018, which is set to increase between 8% and 10% of the 4.8 million arrivals into the state last year. 

Malaysia Airports managing director Datuk Badlisham Ghazali says while the airport operator continuously engages with various airlines in its route development efforts, the

Malaysia Airports managing director

Datuk Badlisham Ghazali

focus is not just on the KL International Airport.

Smaller airports such as Miri Airport also play an important role acting as feeders to our international airports. Miri Airport, which is undergoing expansion to three million passengers per annum (mppa) capacity, handled 2.1 million passenger traffic movements in 2017. 

Badlisham adds that the opening of Pontianak-Miri route is in support of the objectives under the BIMPT-EAGA to increase trade and investment among member countries.

 

BIMPT-EAGA is a sub-regional economic co-operation comprising Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Timor Leste.