AirAsia looks to expand Ipoh connectivity

Low-cost carrier AirAsia is eyeing additional routes here after launching its inaugural direct flight route between Ipoh and Johor Baru today.

“AirAsia has never shied away from destinations. With help from all the agencies here, depending on the facilities and availability of service, we can look into anything within a four hour (flight) distance, for example,” AirAsia chief operating officer Riad Asmat told the press after the inaugural flight landed at the Sultan Azlan Shah airport here.

“We can’t confirm anything at the moment because it requires evaluation. But we look at destinations on a daily basis,” he added.

Riad said the airline’s planes could take 180 passengers each and AirAsia was targeting an 80 per cent take-up.

He said the airline also launched a Johor Baru-Alor Setar flight today, which will be flown four times weekly.

“We are confident both Ipoh and Alor Setar will be extremely popular destinations for business and leisure travellers,” he said.

Perak Mentri Besar Ahmad Faizal Azumu, who was present to greet the first 120 passengers on the inaugural flight, said the flight would boost the state’s tourism industry and economy.

He said the state received 20.1 million domestic tourists last year, up from to 16.8 million in 2016, placing the state second behind Selangor.

Ahmad Faizal said the Perak Tourism Action Council (PTAC) would come up with a masterplan to drive and rebrand Perak’s tourism industry,

“Besides enhancing the branding of our products, we will also re-examine human capital in the tourism sector. We want to provide retraining and skills enhancement programmes for our hospitality operators, hotel staff, tour guides, entrepreneurs and everyone in the tourism ecosystem,” he said,

“The state government has full confidence that AirAsia will play its part as our strategic partner to further promote Perak as a whole.

“We are looking at beyond the Johor Bahru-Ipoh route. Our dream is to work together to connect Ipoh to other destinations in AirAsia’s vast network.”

Ahmad Faizal reiterated that the state was still interested in building a new airport, but noted that it was still being discussed.