KUCHING - One of the airlines under Lion Air Group, Wings Air will operate their International route in late January 2018. The International route is from Pontianak via Supadio Kubu Raya Airport to one of Malaysia's cities Kuching via Kuching International Airport.
This route is the first new destination for Wings Air in 2018 and will start operating on January 24, 2018. The flight will be served twice daily with departure time from Pontianak on 09.45LT on flight number IW 1378 and at 18.00LT on flight number IW 1372. Flight schedule from Kuching will depart on the morning at 07.00LT using flight number IW 1379 and noon at 11:55LT with flight number IW 1373According to the managing director of Malaysia Airports, Datuk Badlisham Ghazali, “We are happy with this initiative by Wings Air in accommodating the needs and demands by the people from Kuching to Pontianak and vice versa. As at December 2017, Kuching International Airport has recorded 5 million number of passengers inbound and outbound. This is definitely another milestone for Kuching International Airport in its aim to become a highly competitive airport in Malaysia. With the additional route to and from Kuching International Airport, we are confident that it would benefit not only the tourism industry but also bring many other economic benefits to the state”.
"On this operation Wings Air will serve the flight using ATR 72-500 or ATR 72-600 aircraft that can provide 72 economic class seats," said Ramaditya Handoko, Corporate Communication of Lion Air Group.
Rama added that the demand for both destinations is high enough, so we are ready to provide 2 times flight schedule per day by not closing the possibility of additional frequencies in the future in order to continue to accommodate our loyal customer’s need.
"We hope that the presence of Wings Air on this route will give more choices to the public of Pontianak and surrounding areas as well as Kuching to visit each other for the needs of tourism, family visits, and MICE. We sure this new route could stimulate economic growth of Pontianak, "he said.
For the future, Wings Air is also planning to expand international routes from Pontianak to other destinations in Malaysia, such as Miri City in the near future, and of course some domestic routes also will be opened, this is supported by the addition of new fleet of Wings Air in 2018 that planned to come about 5 unit ATR 72-600 aircraft that adds new strength for Wings Air operations.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of Sarawak Tourism Board, Datuk Haji Abdul Wahab Bin Aziz welcomed the news of the inaugural with great joy. Describing it as another milestone in the development of tourism in the state, he said, “The direct flight has opened up opportunities for movement of not only tourists from Kalimantan Barat to Sarawak, but serving the business community as well.”
Thanking the Lion Air Group for operating the new flight route, Datuk Wahab hoped that the direct flight from Pontianak will be fed with more international flights within Kalimantan to ensure that there is enough load factor to sustain the daily double flights.
Currently Wings Air flies to more than 105 domestic destinations in Indonesia with the flight frequency reaching 351 flights per day flown by 54 fleets with type ATR 72-500 and 600.