KUALA LUMPUR, 30 May 2022: Malaysia’s Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Dato’ Sri Hajah Nancy Binti Shukri welcomed passengers aboard Malaysia Airlines’ new direct flight from Doha Qatar, last Thursday.
The new service will help drive Malaysia’s tourism recovery to boost traffic flow to Kuala Lumpur from the Doha gateway airport.
The service will provide passengers seamless connectivity via Hamad International Airport, enabling optimal connections to the US, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, through the airline’s codeshare partnership with Qatar Airways.
The national airline is now operating nonstop daily flights between Kuala Lumpur International Airport and Hamad International Airport, Doha. MH160 departs Kuala Lumpur for Doha at 2120, while the return flight MH161 departs Doha at 0130. The airline deploys an A330-300 aircraft on the route, configured with 290 seats, comprising 27 seats in business class, 16 premium economy with extra legroom and 247 seats in economy.
Malaysia has reopened its borders to international tourists starting 1 April 2022. Commenting on the reopening, Dato’ Sri Nancy said, “It is indeed a huge relief for the tourism industry as we welcome more international tourists, newcomers and regulars alike, to further boost our economy. Therefore, we hope for a strong rebound in our market as the border reopening will open doors for the tourism revival to bolster recovery. We are targeting to attract 2 million international tourist arrivals this year with more than MYR8.6 billion (AED7.5 billion) in tourism receipts.”
According to Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (MAHB), international traffic at its local network of airports increased by 53% after the border reopening on 1 April 2022. Since then, MAHB has recorded an average of 23,000 international passenger movements daily, with numbers peaking above 30,000 during the recent long Hari Raya festive break.
Overall, the airports recorded 642,128 international passenger movements, out of which Kota Kinabalu International Airport (BKI), Penang International Airport (PEN) and Langkawi International Airport (LGK) showed the most significant increase by more than 200%, respectively when compared to the preceding month.
Meanwhile, the group recorded 2.78 million passengers for Malaysia in April, with domestic passenger movements totalling 2.13 million or 77%.
(Source: Tourism Malaysia)
