AirAsia bags a double at Sabah Tourism Awards

PETALING JAYA: Low-cost carrier AirAsia won the "Best Airline Award" and the "Minister's Special Award" at the Sabah Tourism Awards 2015.
The "Best Airline" award recognises the airline's contribution to Sabah's tourism industry in terms of connectivity and bringing the highest number of visitors to Sabah in the past two years.
Meanwhile, the Minister's Special Award was given to AirAsia for its role in expansion of direct air connectivity to Sabah internationally and domestically with a total of 23 destinations and growing.
"Thank you to Datuk Seri Panglima Masidi Manjun and his team at Sabah Tourism Board for recognising our 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," AirAsia Bhd CEO Aireen Omar said in a statement yesterday.
"We have big plans for Sabah and look forward to growing the current three million passengers per annum to at least 12 million passengers. We are confident this number is not far-fetched and is highly possible, 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 added.
The low-cost airline has carried more than 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 the state.