Tigerair Taiwan’s inaugural flight to KK arrives

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Pang (centre) and Kwan (fifth left) with Ng (third left), Joniston (fourth left) and other guests during Tigerair Taiwan’s inaugural flight launching ceremony at KKIA here yesterday.

Pang (centre) and Kwan (fifth left) with Ng (third left), Joniston (fourth left) and other guests during Tigerair Taiwan’s inaugural flight launching ceremony at KKIA here yesterday.

KOTA KINABALU: Taiwan’s sole low-cost carrier, Tigerair Taiwan, has paved its way into Malaysia through the airline’s chosen gateway city, Kota Kinabalu.

Yesterday, Tigerair Taiwan celebrated its inaugural Taipei to Kota Kinabalu flight at Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA), making Sabah its tenth international destination thus far.

The flight arrived at around 10.15am with a 98.3% flight load, which is 18.3% above the airline’s load factor target.

“We would certainly like to see more than 80% load factor. We have already achieved that on the first flight,” said Tigerair Taiwan CEO Kwan Yue at the launching ceremony at KKIA here yesterday.

“That really is very encouraging for us, because it only took us a very short time in Taipei to start marketing Kota Kinabalu. We are very encouraged that within this short period of time, we are able to generate such a high interest among the Taiwanese who are very happy to come to Kota Kinabalu,” he added.

Kwan added that the Taipei-Kota Kinabalu route caters to existing clientele among Taiwanese who are looking for affordable airfares to visit Kota Kinabalu.

“We will offer the lowest possible price based on the cost of operating into Kota Kinabalu. Of course, during the first couple of flights, there is a promotional price. We are now pricing below TWD2,000 for a one-way based fare, and we certainly would like to keep the fare as low as possible to offer the opportunity to the travelling public.

“They would actually be able to purchase at a lower price, be able to do more flights, more frequently and come here more often. Instead of only being able to maybe travel once a year in the past, now with lower fare they can actually do it more frequently.”

Although there are some other options to travel into the city, Kwan believes that Tigerair Taiwan also provides more opportunities and options, in terms of flight time and traveling days, for the Taipei-Kota Kinabalu route travellers.

Kwan said the aspirations and similarities of Sabah and the airline were the driving force that has led to Kota Kinabalu being chosen as Tigerair Taiwan’s first Malaysian route.

“Many people ask why choose Kota Kinabalu for our first launch into the Malaysian market. There are a lot of actually very good reasons. Mainly because Kota Kinabalu and our airline share a lot of similarities,” said Tigerair Taiwan CEO Kwan.

“Kota Kinabalu is a resort destination and that is very important for our business because we are similarly planning to look out for destinations that could provide resort based holidays for our passengers.

“On top of that, Kota Kinabalu is also a destination with a lot of progress, which as an airline, Tigerair Taiwan is also hoping to progress with at the same time. I think we are certainly very proud that although we can’t call ourselves the land below the wind, but we are able to provide the wings to bring the people to the land below the wind,” he added.

Amongst the distinguished guests at the ceremony were Sabah Tourism Board chairman Datuk Joniston Bangkuai and Tigerair Taiwan CCO Ailing Ng.

Tigerair Taiwan, formed as a joint venture between China Airlines Group and Tiger Airway Holdings, started its operations on September 26, 2014 and is based at Taiwan Taoyan International Airport.

The airline will operate the Taipei-Kota Kinabalu route four times a week. With an average age of one and a half years, Tigerair Taiwan has one of the youngest aircraft fleet in the region.