Tawau’s first global air access starts
TAWAU: Royal Brunei Airlines (RB) launched its inaugural flight to Tawau from Bandar Seri Begawan, landing here about 6.35pm with 15 passengers, Tuesday. It is Tawau’s first direct air link to the outside world.Among those present were Sabah Tourism Board (STB), Noredah Othman who represented Deputy Chief Minister cum Minister of Tourism, Culture and Environment Datuk Christina Liew; Assistant Minister in the Chief Minister Department, Datuk Jimmy Wong; General Manager of Malaysia Airports Sdn Bhd (MASB) Kamaruzzaman Razali and RB Senior Vice President-Revenue Management, Louis Du Plessis.Christina in her speech said the new route is a great addition for travellers to access the East Coast of Sabah with the first being Sandakan and now, Tawau.
She noted that in recent years RB has strengthened connectivity to other Asian countries and improved the London to Brunei flight by reducing one stopover.“I hope Royal Brunei will also consider to include the Sandakan and Tawau sectors into the promotion that you once had which was an optional free stopover in Kota Kinabalu for any London to Melbourne or vice versa ticket purchase.“We recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with RBA for a UK marketing joint collaboration and we can also include this new route from Brunei to Tawau in the campaign,” she said.She also said that, besides being the gateway to Semporna, Tawau also has unique places of interest such as Tawau Park which houses one of the tallest tropical trees in the world, the 27,000 year old Columnar Basalt at the Balung Cocos village and what is dubbed the Lost World, Maliau Basin.
“In September, we organised the first Tropical Hills Run at Tawau Hills Park which welcome more than 200 runners, among them from Indonesia and six from Kenya. We look at this new route as an ease for more travellers to reach other places in Sabah beyond Kota Kinabalu,” she said.Meanwhile, Louis said RB is delighted to introduce Tawau as their latest addition operating six flights a week using a brand new ATR 72-600 operated by our business partner Malindo Air. “It’s another important and exciting step in our goal to make travel easier within Borneo and beyond.“Sabah is already one of our most popular destinations with 18 weekly flights to Kota Kinabalu and more recently, six weekly Sandakan from our hub Brunei International Airport,” he said.RB Link flights provide guests with a full-service experience, including a light snack and drink service (for flights over one hour) and checked baggage allowance of 15kg or, for connecting guests, weight in-line with international fare rules. The aircraft can accommodate 72 economy class seats with four preferred seats on a 43-inch seat pitch and six preferred seats with 33-inch seat pitch. RB link currently operates to Kota Kinabalu, Kuching, Sandakan, Bintulu, Tawau and very soon to Sibu and Balikpapan.
Source: Daily Express
