LANGKAWI: The island's tourism sector is on the right recovery path from pandemic impact with over 2,000 travellers from Chengdu and Chongqing, China will be arriving in eight chartered flights this month.
For a start, a Batik Air OD611 chartered flight transporting 178 people from Chengdu has arrived at the Langkawi International Airport today.
The aircraft was given a water cannon salute upon touchdown while the passengers were greeted with a special traditional welcoming treat consisting of 'bunga maggar', 'sireh junjung', 'gendang' and lion dance performance.
The reception ceremony was led by Langkawi Development Authority (Lada) chief executive officer Datuk Haslina Abdul Hamid.
Present was Tourism Malaysia Domestic and Events senior director Mohd Amin Yahya.
Haslina later told reporters that Lada is confident that the arrival of chartered flights from Chengdu, popularly known as a heritage city and trade, as well as from Chongqing will create a positive impact on the island's tourism sector.
"It is a common practice that with strong demand, the chartered flights will subsequently lead towards fixed flights operations which will bring even more travellers to the island.
"We are also anticipating more travellers from the Middle-East, Europe and Africa to arrive in Langkawi once flydubai commences its Dubai-Langkawi direct flights this Saturday," she said.
Haslina said Lada is also having talks with a Poland-based travel agency for a cooperation to offer at least 30 direct flights from the country to Langkawi for a period of three years.
"These initiatives are in line with our target to attract 3.5 million visitors to Langkawi this year, with an average of 250,000 visitors' arrival monthly."
In September, flydubai chief executive officer Ghaith Al Ghaith had announced that the airline will add Penang and Langkawi into its expanding footprint in Southeast Asia starting Feb 10, with daily flights from Dubai.
The move makes flydubai the first to connect Penang and Langkawi from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the first carrier to operate flights from the Middle East to Langkawi.
Currently, two airlines AirAsia and Scoot Air are operating direct flights from Singapore to Langkawi since the country's international border was reopened after the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown.
Tourism players in Langkawi have lauded the move as it will help to boost the island's tourism sector recovery from a slump following the pandemic outbreak in early 2020, which led to a period of international borders lockdown.