AirAsia Berhad CEO, Aireen Omar received the award on behalf of the airline from Sabah Minister of Tourism Culture and Environment, Datuk Seri Panglima Masidi Manjun.
The ‘Best Airline’ category recognised AirAsia's contribution to Sabah’s tourism industry in terms of connectivity and bringing the highest number of visitors to Sabah over the past two years.
The ‘Minister Special Awards’ was given to AirAsia for its bold expansion of direct air connectivity to Sabah both internationally and domestically with a total of 23 destinations and growing.
On top of that, the airline also fully optimised Kota Kinabalu’s strategic geographical position, enabling visitors to discover and experience Sabah’s world-class attractions, apart from developing business opportunities in Sabah.
In a press statement, Aireen thank the Sabah Tourism Board for recognising their hard work and contribution to the state of Sabah with two prestigious awards.
“We have invested substantially in developing Sabah into becoming a key AirAsia hub and are very pleased that our efforts have paid off with the ever-growing numbers,”
“We have big plans for Sabah and look forward to growing the current 3 million passengers per annum to at least 12 million passengers,” she said.
She added that the company is confident in reaching this target with a proper low cost carrier terminal in place in Kota Kinabalu.
“Sabah has tremendous potential to be a key regional hub and we want to make this a reality,” she said.
AirAsia has flown over 8.4 million people in and out of Sabah in the past two years and currently serves 698 weekly flights to and from Kota Kinabalu, Tawau and Sandakan in Sabah.
The airline has also seen a growing trend of guests travelling from the Asian region and Australia into Kota Kinabalu through AirAsia’s Fly-Thru service.
Bangkok, Beijing, Shanghai and Perth are the top cities with people connecting into Sabah for the past year, and AirAsia currently has 24 Fly-Thru routes into Kota Kinabalu, providing easy access and convenience for visitors across the region to travel to the state of Sabah.
