KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 4 — A total of 10 new international flight routes, including a rental flight route, with over 3,100 weekly flights, will be introduced this month.

Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing said the additional routes will connect five major destination in the country - Kuala Lumpur, Johor Bahru, Kota Kinabalu, Langkawi and Penang, enabling the states involved to share in the tourism benefits while offering various travel options.

"This initiative will surely boost Malaysia’s competitiveness in the global tourism industry and make it the country of choice for international tourists.

"International tourist arrivals to Malaysia have exceeded 20.5 million as of October, exceeding the 20.14 million throughout 2023. I’m optimistic that the year-end push will bring us closer to pre-pandemic levels,” he said in a post on Facebook yesterday, adding that the 10 new routes will be launched progressively, beginning with the Vietjet direct daily flights between Hanoi, Vietnam and Kuala Lumpur.

This will be followed by Indigo Airlines’ first flight to the country, with three new routes connecting Malaysia and India, including daily flights between Bengaluru and Kuala Lumpur and Langkawi as well as daily flights from Chennai to Penang.

Other routes include daily Batik Air flights between Bangkok, Thailand and Johor Bahru, thrice-a-week AirAsia flights from Saigon, Vietnam to Kota Kinabalu, five-times a week Malaysia Airlines flights from Kolkata, India to Kuala Lumpur and a thrice-weekly Shanghai Airlines flight from Yuncheng, China to Kuala Lumpur.

Meanwhile, Tiong said the launch date for the twice-weekly Jiangxi flight from Nanchang, China to Kuala Lumpur will be announced at a later date.

He added that Jeju Air will be introducing a twice-weekly rental flight route between Muan, South Korea and Kota Kinabalu on Dec 10.

"After all 10 routes begin operation, we will add 50 international flights a week to Malaysia. Passenger capacity will rise from 612,423 to almost 620,000 weekly.

"This news will be an important development for the national tourism sector and I’m confident it will strengthen Malaysia’s position as a major tourist destination,” he added. — Bernama