KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 28 — Malaysia Airlines marked another milestone in its network expansion plan by introducing a new direct flight route between Kota Kinabalu and Singapore, which commenced operations yesterday.

The inaugural flight was commemorated with a welcome ceremony for passengers who arrived at the Kota Kinabalu International Airport (BKI) at 12:25pm local time via flight MH648 from Changi International Airport (SIN).

Captain Izham Ismail, the group chief executive officer (CEO) of Malaysia Aviation Group, which runs Malaysia Airlines, said the route will further boost connectivity and flexibility for passengers bound for Singapore, as the airline also offers direct flights to the country via its main hub of Kuala Lumpur, Penang, and Kuching.

"With this new service, passengers from Singapore can seamlessly connect to the Land Below the Wind to discover the scenic attractions of Sabah and even fly to surrounding states from BKI via sister airlines Firefly and MASwings.

"We look forward to further expanding our growth, introducing new strategic routes, and increasing our capacity to achieve more than 70 per cent of our pre-Covid-19 capacity by year-end,” he said in a statement, today.

Meanwhile, Sabah Tourism Board CEO Noredah Othman said that since the re-opening of the SIN-BKI route in April, the route recorded an upward trend with 1,248 arrivals in May and 3,051 arrivals in June.

"With the inclusion of Malaysia Airlines, we are confident that this trend will continue,” she added.

Malaysia Airlines will operate the direct flights three times weekly on Monday, Thursday, and Saturday, departing from BKI-SIN via MH647 at 07:00 am and departing SIN-BKI via MH648 at 10:00am.

The flights will be operated by B737-800 aircraft, equipped with 160 seats, comprising 16 seats in business class and 144 seats in economy class. — Bernama