Airasia unveils first airbus to Sabah helping it to boost tourism industry

KOTA KINABALU: Airasia Berhad has introduced its first airbus to its Sabah sector helping to boost the tourism industry and bringing the state closer to its target of 2.6 million tourists this year.

Making its maiden flight from the Kota Kinabalu Terminal 2 to Kuala Lumpur at 7.25am, the low-cost carrier’s first A320 Airbus returned at 12.50pm yesterday.

Present to welcome the passengers were Sabah Tourism Board chairman Tengku Datuk Adlin Zainal and Airasia staff.

The A320 Airbus has a capacity of 180 passengers, bigger storage compartment and outfitted with AirAsia’s signature leather seats in comparison to the Boeing 737-300which can accommodate only 148 passengers.

Communications officer for Airasia Joyce Lai said the A320 was one of four airbuses purchased for the Kota Kinabalu airport. It was flown from France to Kuala Lumpur and arrived at Terminal 2 on Saturday evening.

“Altogether, Airasia has purchased a total of 225 airbuses for its terminals nationwide but only 175 have been confirmed while the other 50 are still pending. But we are expecting to have a complete fleet of airbus by the end of 2008,” she said.

At present, only Kuala Lumpur and Johor Bahru have a complete fleet of the aircraft.

For the time being the A320 will fly passengers to Macau, Kuching and Kuala Lumpur from Kota Kinabalu.

Once all four airbuses are here by the end of this year there will be additional flights to Shenzhen in China, Johor Bahru as well as Sandakan and Tawau.

Currently, there are 23 flights flying from here daily, to four international and seven domestic destinations.

Last year, AirAsia flew in some 1.8 million passengers into Kota Kinabalu.

Sabah’s target of 2.7 million tourists last year had to be revised to 2.3 million due to construction work on the Kota Kinabalu Terminal 1 expansion.

Meanwhile, on the shortage of parking lots at the airport, a spokesperson of the airlines said they would look into the situation to come up with a solution “for the good of all”.

There are only 168 parking spaces at Terminal 2 causing some people to park their vehicles illegally.