Tourism Minister Asks Airasia To Operate KL-Chengdu Direct Flights Daily

23 November 2009

CHENGDU-- Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen has asked AirAsia to consider daily direct flights between Chengdu and Kuala Lumpur following the good response to the four times a week direct flights between the two cities.

She said the low-cost carrier launched KL-Chengdu and Chengdu-KL direct flights on Oct 20 with four flights a week and the passenger load had achieved 80 per cent.

"I believe the tourists' flow between the two cities, visiting each other, will further increase. I hope AirAsia will operate one flight a day in the near future to allow more tourists from here to travel to Malaysia and vice-versa," she said after meeting Huang Yan Rong, the Vice-Governor of the Sichuan Province, Monday.

Dr Ng, who is on her working trip to China, said she was looking forward to enhance bilateral investments as well, as she saw the city had great potential for investments and the Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation had opened a representative office here for the same reason.

Currently, 17 Malaysian companies have invested in electronic manufacturing industries and the education sector here.

The Minister also encouraged investors here to invest in Malaysia as the economic sectors have been liberalised to allow 100 per cent foreign ownership.

Huang said the earthquake on May 12 last year brought great impact to the tourism industry here to the extent that tourism revenue declined by 68 per cent.

She, however, said the tourism industry recovered rapidly after the provincial government accelerated restoration projects here.

"The province's tourism revenue between January and October has touched 1.25 billion yuan, an increase of 43.4 per cent. It is even higher than in 2007 before the earthquake," she said.

Huang also expressed her appreciation to the Malaysian government's support and assistance extended when the tragedy occurred.

On tourism, she said Malaysia was one of the most popular destinations for locals here to go for vacation.

With the bilateral cooperation with the tourism authorities of both countries, the Kuala Lumpur-Chengdu tourism industry would further flourish, she said.

Huang also asked Dr Ng to forward her proposal to set up a Malaysian consulate here to enhance bilateral collaborations in the economic, trade, tourism and cultural sectors.

-- BERNAMA