KOTA KINABALU: Thai AirAsia will launch a direct flight from Bangkok’s Don Mueang Airport to Kota Kinabalu, the capital of Sabah state in Malaysia, according to a report in The Star.
The online edition of The Star quoted the Sabah Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister during a briefing with local journalists on the state’s efforts to attract more international flights to connect the state capital in due time.
The media statement on Friday, 24 June, confirmed the minister held talks with AirAsia Malaysia chief executive officer Riad Asmat at the airline’s Kuala Lumpur headquarters earlier last week.
AirAsia Malaysia already offers direct international flights to Kota Kinabalu from Singapore and Manila in the Philippines. Thai AirAsia flew the Bangkok-Kota Kinabalu route in 2019 before the initial Covid-19 pandemic outbreak in early March 2020 caused a two-year tourism pause across Southeast Asia.
AirAsia Thailand (FD) became the first low-fare airline to fly direct from both airports in Bangkok (Suvarnabhumi (BKK) and Don Mueang Airport (DMK) to Kuala Lumpur earlier this month. With two flights daily, the new service signals a robust recovery for international tourism and travel.
But so far, no official confirmation from Thai AirAsia on flight details for the launch of direct flights to Kota Kinabalu from its DMK hub scheduled for July. A check of the AirAsia booking site offers July flights without specifying the frequencies. It’s a hit-and-miss mission to find the days when the airline will fly during the launch month. But it is probably worth it as the service via Kuala Lumpur takes more than nine hours compared with the direct flight clocked at just three hours with a fare of around THB2,950 (one way). Sky Scanner offers more information on the actual days identifying AirAsia direct flights to Kota Kinabalu on Fridays starting 1 July, with additional flights scheduled on Sunday 10 July, Wednesday 13 July and Wednesday 27 July.
(Source: The Star)
