| James Kon |
ROYAL Brunei Airlines (RB) passengers will soon have the option of flying to Tokyo via Hong Kong, onboard Hong Kong Airlines effective November.
This comes following yesterday’s signing of a codeshare agreement between both airlines, thereby ensuring increased connectivity and helping RB further spread its wings to other regions.
Under the agreement, Hong Kong Airlines ‘HX’ code will be placed on RB’s daily flights between Hong Kong and Bandar Seri Begawan. At the same time, RB will place its BI code on Hong Kong Airlines’ daily flights between Hong Kong and onwards to Tokyo, Japan.
The sales of air tickets to Japan via Hong Kong from Bandar Seri Begawan will start in November, while flight tickets between Bandar Seri Begawan and Hong Kong under the codeshare agreement can be purchased from travel agents or at either the RB or Hong Kong Airlines sales office and call centre from September 8 onwards.
The daily flight connection details are Bandar Seri Begawan to Hong Kong onboard Flight HX1635/BI635 (departs at 10.30am and arrives at 1.35pm) and Hong Kong to Tokyo onboard Flight HX60/BI3403 (departs at 3.30pm and arrives at 8.55pm).
The return flight from Tokyo to Hong Kong onboard Flight HX611/B13404 departures at 9.30am and arrives at 1.30pm, while the flight from Hong Kong to Bandar Seri Begawan will depart at 2.35pm and arrive at 5.40pm.
RB Chief Executive Officer Karam Chand who inked the agreement during the press conference highlighted, “We have daily flights to Hong Kong and the good news is that all the flights are connected to Tokyo through Hong Kong Airlines, which has two daily flights to Japan.
Exchange of souvenir between RB Chief Executive Officer Karam Chand and Hong Kong Airlines Chief Commercial Officer Li Dianchun following the codeshare agreement signing. – PHOTOS: JAMES KON
RB Chief Executive Officer and Hong Kong Airlines Chief Commercial Officer with the Japanese Ambassador to Brunei Darussalam Noriko Iki, Charge d’Affaires of the China Embassy in Brunei Darussalam Fu Fengshan and invited guests.
“The benefits for customers include direct baggage transfer from Brunei to Tokyo, and the ideal transit time. “
On expending RB’s presence in Japan, he said, “We are not very well represented in North Asia at the moment.
“Currently, we have daily flights to Hong Kong, three flights to Shanghai and we don’t fly to Japan, Korea or Taiwan… but we are growing our footprint in China with flights to Zhengzhou and charter flights to Nanning.
“With the existing good relations between Brunei and Japan in terms of trade and travel, we have always wanted to have a presence in Japan so this is a nice way to get back into that market. “We haven’t ruled out weather to fly directly to Japan, but to us, this is a very important first step and great team effort with our partner airline.
“Hong Kong Airlines is currently serving so many markets and we can connect with them to other parts of the world like China as well as North America.
“At the moment, it is quite difficult for Bruneians to get to North America and if we can have a nice connection over Hong Kong, it will be far more convenient to travel to the west coast of the United States and vice versa.
“This partnership brings in other markets that we currently can’t serve,” he said.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong Airlines Chief Commercial Officer Li Dianchun said, “We also have more destinations in cities in China.
“We have three daily flights to Beijing, while to Taiwan we have four flights per day.
“Through this partnership, we hope that our airlines can connect more Chinese passengers to Brunei.”
He also pointed out that RB and Hong Kong Airlines are located at the same terminal in Hong Kong Airport, therefore making life easier for not only passengers headed to Tokyo, but also to other cities that Hong Kong Airlines travels to.
“As a Skytrax 4 star airline company, Hong Kong Airlines has always been committed to enhancing its network in Asia- Pacific.
“Currently, the network of Hong Kong Airlines covers about 35 business and leisure travel destinations in the Asia-Pacific region.
“In the first half of 2016, Hong Kong Airlines carried over 3 million passengers. Recently, we also extended our flight services to new destinations such as Kuching, Osaka and Saipan,” he added.
Also present to witness the signing were Japanese Ambassador to Brunei Darussalam Noriko Iki with Fu Fengshan, Charge d’Affaires of the China Embassy in Brunei Darussalam, and invited guests.
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