Malaysian low-cost airline AirAsia will be increasing flight frequencies from Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok, Thailand to Kunming, the capital and largest city in Yunnan Province, Southwest China.
 
Daily direct flight from Kuala Lumpur to Kunming will be increased to 14 times weekly starting December 19, while the daily direct flight from Bangkok, Thailand to Kunming will also be increased to 14 times weekly commencing January 16, 2018.
 
To celebrate the occasion, AirAsia is offering all-in-fares as low as RM179 ($43.8) from Kuala Lumpur to Kunming. Bookings are available from now to December 17 on the airline's website and mobile app, for immediate travel until June 30, 2018.
 
AirAsia first launched Kuala Lumpur-Kunming daily direct flight on December 10, 2012, operating daily. Shortly after a year, the airline also launched Bangkok-Kunming daily direct flight. Coming to its fifth years of operations to Kunming, the airline has carried close to 1 million passengers to and from Kunming Changshui International Airport, achieving itself as the largest foreign low-cost carrier in Kunming in terms of capacity.
 
Spencer Lee, AirAsia Berhad head of commercial, said: “Five years ago, we launched our first route to Kunming with the aim to enable more people to fly. Since then we have revolutionised the air travel in Kunming and realised many individuals’ dreams to travel. Due to the rapid growth of China’s civil aviation, we are seeing more travel demands from the Chinese. Adding flight frequency is one of our commitment to grow China market and we hope more people can easily access to air travel with our low fares. They can also leverage on our Fly-Thru options to travel to more Asean countries and Asia Pacific. With more flights available, this will boost the tourist arrival in both cities, at the same time contributing to the development of China’s ‘One Belt, One Road’ policy in increasing connectivity.”
 
“China remains as one of our key markets. In this year itself, we have launched two new routes from Malaysia to China: Langkawi-Shenzhen, Kuching-Shenzhen. We are also looking at operating more new routes to China from our other hubs in Malaysia such as Langkawi, Kuching and Johor.”
 
Known as the ‘Spring City’, Kunming is a city with a pleasant climate all year round. The magnificent set of limestone formations in Shilin (Stone Forest) is listed as one of the Unesco’s World Heritage. The enchanting Jiu Xiang Cave, colourful Dongchuan Red Land as well as diverse ethnic culture are among the well-known attractions in Kunming. With its unique geographic location, the Yunnan Province is a radiation hub for Southeast Asia in the "One Belt, One Road" policy. Its economic, trade and tourism in the province are also well connected with the countries in Southeast Asia.
 
AirAsia currently operates 14 times weekly flights one way into Kunming Changshui International Airport. Beside flights from Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok, AirAsia has recently launched daily direct flight from Phuket to Kunming which will commence on February 1, 2018. - TradeArabia News Service