The event was graced by the Malaysian Ambassador to the Republic of Indonesia Datuk Seri Zahrain Mohamed Hashim, Malaysia Airlines chief commercial officer Arved von zur Muehlen and several Indonesian senior local government officers.
Flight MH871 departed Kuala Lumpur at 6.30am. Upon arrival, passengers were treated to a colourful cultural performance by dancers from Tourism Indonesia and treated to special goodies.
Muehlen told Bernama that MAS was delighted to be in Surabaya to celebrate the inaugural Kuala Lumpur-Surabaya-Kuala Lumpur service, marking the airline's fourth key destination in Indonesia.
"We are excited to resume direct flights to Surabaya ... This route expansion will provide superior connectivity with direct flights operating four times weekly to and from Kuala Lumpur to the second busiest airport in Indonesia," he said.
MAS stopped direct flight from Kuala Lumpur to Surabaya four years ago as part of its worldwide rationalisation exercise.
"I am happy to be able to celebrate and reaffirm the strong ties between Malaysia and Indonesia with the resumption of our operations into Surabaya. I am also happy to announce that we will be increasing the four times weekly Kuala Lumpur-Surabaya flights to daily, beginning early December," he added.
The four-times weekly service to and from Surabaya is operated by the airline's new generation B737-800 aircraft with 160 seats, comprising 16 Business Class seats and 144 Economy Class seats.
Meanwhile, Zahrain said the Kuala Lumpur-Surabaya direct flight was timely as there was overwhelming demand for the sector.
Statistics showed that direct flights to Surabaya and vice-versa flew at full capacity as many Malaysians were holidaying in Surabaya while Indonesians frequently flew to Kuala Lumpur to visit their families.
Source: Bernama | 29 October 2017
No comments:
Post a Comment