| Wani Roslan |
THE Royal Brunei Airlines (RB) held a ceremony last night at the Brunei International Airport to mark the official launch of its services to Kuching, Sarawak.
The guest of honour was Minister at the Prime Minister’s Office and Minister of Finance and Economy II Dato Seri Setia Dr Awang Haji Mohd Amin Liew bin Abdullah who is also Chairman of RB Board of Directors.
Others present were Sarawak Minister for Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports Datuk Haji Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah, Permanent Secretary of Sarawak Ministry of Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports Hii Chang Kee, Sarawak Tourism Board CEO Sharzede Datuk Salleh Askor and Acting CEO of RB Captain Saiful Bahrin bin Bahar.
“Today marks another historic day as we take an expanded role to stimulate tourism in Brunei and Sarawak with the new connectivity to Kuching,” Captain Saiful Bahrin said.
“As one of the first destinations RB flew to back in 1975, we are extremely delighted to reconnect the beautiful city of Kuching with the rest of our network and provide the missing link to Brunei once again,” he added.
“Last month RB signed a Memorandum of Agreement with Sarawak Tourism Board which kick starts our collaborative efforts to join hands to maximise tourism opportunities for both Brunei and Sarawak, aiming to stimulate visitors’ inflow between Brunel and Kuching, and provide a vital link to connect to a wider region in the island of Borneo via RB’s network,” Captain Saiful Bahrin said.
The Acting CEO of RB said, “The Kuching direct flight is an exciting opportunity for RB to market our single and dual destination packages in all the cities we serve for the benefit of our tourism stakeholders in Brunei and Sarawak.
“It makes Kuching more accessible and an attractive option to our focus markets including London, United Kingdom; Melbourne, Australia; Shanghai, China and soon Tokyo, Japan, where our guests can enjoy a twin city experience in one trip,” he added.
In a speech, guest of honour Dato Seri Setia Dr Awang Haji Mohd Amin Liew underlined that the launching of the flight to Kuching is the resumption of direct flight between Bandar Seri Begawan and Kuching.
“As an economic catalyst for trade and tourism, the non-stop connection between Brunei and Kuching is part of RB’s evolution in an effort to further increase its role to promote Brunei as a connectivity hub in tune with the country’s vision to present itself as a tourism destination of choice,” he said.
Meanwhile, Sharzede expressed full confidence in the direct flight adding, “It is indeed good for the tourism industry in Sarawak to start the New Year with Royal Brunei Airlines making its return trip to Kuching after a five year absence.
“The direct flight sees Sarawak being connected to our focus markets of the United Kingdom, Australia and China and to our secondary markets of Japan and Korea where we can look forward to better arrivals,” he said.
“The board and the Sarawak industry partners look forward to work closely in ensuring the sustainability of the route and at the same time to facilitate joint promotion to ensure long term business interest of all concern,” he added.
Flights from Brunei to Kuching will be serviced by RB’s A320 with two weekly flights, increasing to four weekly flights from February 3, 2019.
The flight duration of just an hour and 15 minutes means a quick transfer between the two destinations and more time to enjoy the many sights and attractions on offer.