Published on : Friday, April 12, 2019
Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (MAHB) group CEO Raja Azmi Raja Nazuddin explained that the campaign would balance its current campaign to persuade greater number of airlines to fly in, including sprucing up of facilities and services at airports nationwide.
“The demand for Malaysia as a destination is what determines whether airlines decide to come here or not,” Raja Azmi told FMT in a recent interview.
“That is why it is vital that Malaysia can always attract tourists, and though this involves multiple parties and is not something we can control on our own, we feel the need to do something.”
MAHB’s campaign to attract more airways to land in the airports of Malaysia has already borne fruit.
In 2018, 13 new airlines added Malaysia to their destinations.
This year, MAHB is all set to attract 10 new airlines to fly in.
In 2018, tourism arrivals in Malaysia had declined, according to government statistics.
Raja Azmi stated that the drop would impact airlines as they would scale down the number of flights.
He said that it was time MAHB played a practical role, and not to remain satisfied with being an airport operator.
Raja Azmi said MAHB was also working together with Tourism Malaysia on promotional funds called the Joint International Tourism Development Programme.
“Through this collaboration, we aim to boost tourist arrivals from high growth markets such as China, India and Asean and develop new routes for Malaysia.”