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Neeraj Bagga
Tribune News Service
Amritsar, October 25
The maiden Kuala Lumpur-Amritsar flight began its operations from today.
Initially scheduled thrice a week on every Wednesday, Friday and Sunday between Amritsar and the Malaysian capital city, the flight is being run by Malaysia’s Malindo Air.
The inaugural OD271 flight from Kuala Lumpur with 130 passengers on board landed at Sri Guru Ramdas Jee International Airport at about 12:30 pm.
It is the sole carrier to connect South-East Asia to Amritsar. The departing maiden flight OD 272 took off from Amritsar at 1:15 pm. It is expected to land at Kuala Lumpur international airport at 9:35 pm same day.
Chandran Rama Murthy, CEO of Malindo Air, said, “The Sikh population in Malaysia numbers about 2.50 lakh and air connectivity with the city of Golden Temple would offer them convenient travel. Malindo Air debuts this latest route, Kuala Lumpur to Amritsar, at a promotional fare of only Rs 14,499 one-way for economy class and Rs 36,499 one-way for business class, all inclusive of light refreshments and a meal, in-flight entertainment and free baggage allowance.”
Murthy elaborated that Amritsar has become the seventh destination of the airline in India it was expanding its international reach. “Being the only carrier to connect South-East Asia with Amritsar, we hope that through this new route, tourism sectors in both Malaysia and India will prosper with more tourist arrivals,” he remarked.
“India has always been an important market for Malaysia, as one of the top 10 tourist markets to the country, and we hope Malindo Air’s foray into the Indian cities will continuously make significant contributions to our tourist arrivals and tourist receipts,” said Murthy.
Tourism Malaysia is planning to attract close to 8 million travellers from India to Malaysia in conjunction with Visit Malaysia 2015. According to statistics from Tourism Malaysia, Malaysia had registered more than 6 million Indian tourists in 2014.
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