RBA tie-up looks to revive Brunei-Kch route
KUCHING: The Ministry of Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports is working on a collaboration with Royal Brunei Airlines ( RBA) to explore the possibility of reinstating the airline’s Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei-Kuching route.
Assistant Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture Datuk Lee Kim Shin said though RBA terminated the service five years ago, there is hope that the route will be revived so as to create a tourism linkage between Brunei and Sarawak.
“We had a fruitful meeting with RBA in Bandar Seri Begawan last month where we proposed that tourists who visit Brunei can also extend their visit to Sarawak. Apart from Miri, they can also come to Kuching which is why we proposed for a flight from Brunei to Kuching.
“We are looking at these potential areas of collaboration where we can work out a win-win situation,” he said after chairing a joint-meeting between Malaysia
We had a fruitful meeting with RBA in Bandar Seri Begawan last month where we proposed that tourists who visit Brunei can also extend their visit to Sarawak.
Airports Holdings Berhad (MAHB) and RBA at Kuching International Airport ( KIA) here on Tuesday.
Apart from RBA, Lee disclosed that the ministry was also working together with the top three tour operators in Brunei to come up with several joint-promotion tour packages.
“This is targeted towards tourists particularly those from China so when they arrive in Brunei via RBA, they can extend a tour to Sarawak.”
Meanwhile, RBA chief executive officer Karam Chand said the national carrier of Brunei has enjoyed a very successful relationship with Malaysia for many years.
“We feel there are good opportunities to collaborate. The markets are there especially if you look at our long-haul markets, customers would love to do a side trip or spend a bulk of their time in Kuching,” he said, adding that a lot of RBA customers have shown interest in Sarawak, particularly those from Australia and the United Kingdom.
He pointed out that this year has been a significant year for RBA as the airline not only expanded its fleet from 10 to 14 aircraft, but added new flights to Hangzhou, Nanning, Shanghai and Hong Kong as well as Haikou and Changsha by December.
“At the end of this month, we will be flying non- stop to London for the first time, thus making this a non- stop product from Borneo to London.
“This is a great opportunity for us to leverage on that and provide additional traffic for people coming from the UK and Europe.”
He said most long-haul tourists would not want to spend their holidays in one destination.
“I believe they would want to enjoy Borneo island and see what we have to offer.
“We have a lot of opportunities in Sarawak to offer these tourists to explore more in addition to what Brunei has to offer.”
During the meeting, Karam and his delegation were briefed by MAHB general manager (Airline Marketing) Mohamed Sallauddin Mat Sah on the incentives of KIA as well as the background of Malaysia Airports incentives.
Apart from that, the delegation also looked at facilities provided by KIA.
Also present during the meeting were Sarawak Tourism Board ( STB) chief executive officer Sharzede Salleh Askor, KIA operations manager Ya’akub Abu Bakar, RBA head of Ground Service Abdul Nasir Bolhassan and head of Sales Ng Ai-Ling.
Datuk Lee Kim Shin, Assistant Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture