If you thought there were a lot of Middle Easterners in Bukit Bintang before, you’re about to see even more of them now: Saudi low-cost airline flynas is on schedule to start its new route to KL in April.
The airline’s CEO Raja M Azmi said Malaysia was chosen as its first long-haul destination mainly due to Malaysia’s position as being the source of the largest haj and umrah inbound tourists into Saudi Arabia.
“Last year about 229,000 inbound Malaysians tourists performed haj and umrah. Malaysia is also known to be a popular tourism destination for the Saudis with 73,000 visiting the country between January and September 2013.
“We expect the momentum of last year to continue this year. We estimate about 4,000 to 5,000 tourists from Kuala Lumpur to Jeddah every month and hope to double the number of flights next year,” said Azmi to reporters after the launch of the new Kuala Lumpur-Jeddah and vice versa sector yesterday.
The Jeddah-KL flights will run thrice weekly from early April onwards, with fares starting at RM1,500 for economy class and RM5,000 and up for business.
The budget airline also plans to expand to new long-haul routes into Europe, Asia and Africa in the second quarter of this year.
“flynas’ fleet currently consists of 27 Airbus A320 and A330 aircraft,” he said.
flynas, formerly known as Nas Air, is targeting 20 million passengers per year by end of 2020 through its expansion into long-haul destinations.
Source: Bernama
