KUALA LUMPUR, 28 February 2025: Tourism Malaysia welcomed the arrival of China Southern Airlines’ inaugural flight from Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, earlier this week.
The flight makes a stopover in Guangzhou on its way to Kuala Lumpur (KUL).
The route from northwestern China to Kuala Lumpur operates twice weekly (Monday and Saturday) using a Boeing 737 with 152 seats. The airline plans to expand to daily flights starting in April 2025. The new service complements the airline’s direct Guangzhou-Kuala Lumpur flights, which operate five times weekly.
Guests on the inaugural flight from Urumqi were welcomed at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) Terminal 1 by a delegation led by the Tourism Malaysia director-general YBhg Datuk Manoharan Periasamy, representatives from China Southern Airlines, Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (MAHB), and Aero Darat, the airline’s ground handling agency.
Meanwhile, China Eastern Airlines introduced direct flights between Xi’an, the capital of Shaanxi Province in central China, and Kuala Lumpur on 23 February.
Xi’an is a significant urban hub in northwestern China, witnessing rapid population growth, especially among middle-class families with rising disposable income.
This new route will operate daily with a 156-seat A320 aircraft and complements China Eastern Airlines’ existing daily Kunming-Kuala Lumpur service.
AirAsia X also serves the Xi’an-Kuala Lumpur route, offering four weekly flights. (Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday).
