New daily flights from Malaysia to Melbourne
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12 November 2008
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Links between Malaysia and Melbourne are set to strengthen with new daily flights from low-cost airline AirAsia X due to take off from Kuala Lumpur from March next year.
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AirAsia X will initially have four Kuala Lumpur-Melbourne services per week and will increase to daily services from March 2009. AirAsia X will also operate daily services during the peak season from mid December to mid January.
Victorian Tourism Minister Tim Holding welcomed the announcement, saying the new low-cost service into Melbourne shows confidence in Victoria as a tourism destination for both the leisure and business tourism markets.
“These services will provide new tourism opportunities, offering travellers low fares and making both Melbourne and Victoria more accessible and more attractive to visitors.
“Victoria’s recent growth in tourism numbers, new international air services, continued investment in new tourism infrastructure and the ongoing Jigsaw marketing campaign has placed Victoria in a robust position to deal with the current global economic challenges,” Mr Holding said.
The new AirAsia X services are expected to provide a significant boost for Victoria’s tourism industry, which is worth around $15 billion a year and provides jobs for more than 179,000 people.
“Victoria already enjoys a one-third market share of Malaysian visitors to Australia, the largest of any state, with 49,000 in the year ending June 2008,” Mr Holding said.
“We expect this to reach 82,000 visitors by 2017, and AirAsia X’s arrival means Victoria is even better placed now to cater to such traffic growth.
“It will also help build Victoria’s reputation as the number one Australian study destination for Malaysian students, with approximately 40 per cent now choosing to study here.
“The Victorian Government will continue working to increase the number of direct international flights into Melbourne, as 70 per cent of Victoria’s tourism growth over the next decade is expected to come from international markets,” Mr Holding said.
Air Asia X is part of the AirAsia Group, which also includes AirAsia (Malaysia), AirAsia (Indonesia) and AirAsia (Thailand). AirAsia Group currently serves 60 destinations with more than 72 planes based in three countries and has carried 50 million passengers since 2002.
In 2008, AirAsia Group is expecting to carry a total of 18 million passengers and plans to expand across Australia, China, India, Korea, Japan, United Kingdom and the Middle East.
The arrival of Air Asia X comes on top of other recent aviation wins facilitated by the Victorian Government including new services by Etihad, increased services by Emirates, Pacific Blue, and Philippine Airlines and Tiger Airways’ heavy maintenance contract.
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