ROYAL Brunei Airlines (RB) held a promotional event in Nanning on June 25, in collaboration with its local partners and RB’s International Brand Ambassador, Wu Chun, to promote the recently launched scheduled services between Nanning and Brunei.
The event included a press conference, destination Brunei marketing and awareness campaign by RB and Wu Chun followed by press interviews with RB Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Karam Chand and the Brand Ambassador.
Nanning, the capital of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in South-West China, is the latest scheduled destination added to the growing route network of RB. The national flag carrier of Brunei Darussalam first operated seasonal charter flights to Nanning in 2016 and resumed services to the destination as charter flights between January and March 2018. Scheduled flights on a twice weekly basis commenced shortly after in early April this year.
“RB is extremely proud to have launched our twice weekly flights between Nanning and Bandar Seri Begawan. Our Nanning flights have proven to be very popular with our Chinese and Bruneian guests. Going into scheduled services so soon after launching the flights is a testament to the hard work done by RB together with our business partner in China – Hainan Wenhua Air Tourism. We have experienced an average load factor in excess of 80 per cent since the commencement of services and this is great news for all Bruneian and Nanning tourism stakeholders. RB is pleased with the growth from the new source market and we will continue to monitor this and other regional cities in China with an objective of adding more capacity,” said Karam Chand, RB’s CEO.
“China is the world’s largest tourism market and has one of the largest foreign direct investments in Brunei. This provides RB with opportunities for further expansion and to enable more travel, trade and investment between the two countries. We are also pleased to be announcing the new route to Haikou, capital of Hainan province which will commenced on October 30, 2018, subject to government approvals and grant of landing slots. Initially we will provide Hainan with a twice weekly service and there is good potential for more flights with growth in the market,” added the CEO.
The Nanning and Haikou services will be operated using the new A320 NEO aircraft offering full service product with business, economy plus and economy seats and over 1,000 options for entertainment content. RB, by November this year, will have one of the youngest fleets in the world with an average fleet age of two years.
RB’s International Brand Ambassador made a special appearance for his fans to promote RB and Brunei Tourism Board. He took part in activities with thousands of fans and visitors at the event venue. Being a Bruneian himself, Wu Chun shared his experiences on what Brunei and RB has on offer to his fans.