In a phenomenal achievement, the Penang International Airport (PIA) achieved a 287% increase in flights from January to June this year.
To further elevate Penang as the region’s preferred destination, AirAsia and Penang Global Tourism (PGT) signed a memorandum of collaboration (MOC) to this effect.
Present was State Exco for Tourism and Creative Economy YB Yeoh Soon Hin, chief executive officer of AirAsia Malaysia, Riad Asmat and PGT CEO Ooi Chok Yan at the G Kelawai Hotel here.
“We applaud Airasia for providing connectivity to/from Penang with 184 weekly as a group. We are pleased that Airasia has returned several of their routes to pre-pandemic levels,”said Yeoh in his speech.
Meanwhile, Riad said that Penang is a major hub for Asiasia and now hopes to bring back to pre-covid levels.
“We have flown over 584,000 guests into the state including more than 87,000 international guests since the borders reopening in April.
“However, we face the challenge to get aircrafts, Hopefully, we can get another aircraft to be based at the Penang International Airport (PIA) thus meeting 80% of pre-pandemic levels.
“By next year, we expect to return to pre-pandemic levels with four aircrafts to be based in PIA,” he said.
Riad also thanked the Penang state government and PGT for their continuous support to introduce new routes from PIA.
“We have a total 13 routes from PIA namely to Ho Chi Minh, Jakarta, Singapore, Surabayu, Bangkok, Medan, Sibu, Kuala Lumpur, Kota Kinabalu,Kuching, Kota Bharu, Johor Bahru, and Langkawi.
“I am excited looking at what’s going to happen in the near future, We are also looking at connecting more flights to Indonesia and India in the near future,” he added.
In the meantime, AirAsia has also launched the RM59 one-way rate to Penang.
Also present was state assemblyman for Pengkalan Kota Daniel Gooi, Penang Tourism Malaysia deputy director, Siti Hajar, John Kim representing MAH Penang and other stakeholders.
