ID :
355180
Mon, 01/26/2015 - 09:39
Auther :

ANA To Launch New Flight Service From Tokyo To Kuala Lumpur

By Manik Mehta NEW YORK, Jan 26 (Bernama) -- Japanese carrier, All Nippon Airways (ANA) confirmed Saturday at the ongoing New York Times Travel Show in New York that it would be launching a new daily flight from Tokyo to Kuala Lumpur effective Sept 1, 2015. ANA, which is a member of the airlines' alliance called Star Alliance and is forming a joint venture with German carrier Lufthansa, sees "good demand" for seats from the USA to Malaysia since there are no direct flights between the two countries since Malaysia Airlines (MAS) completely withdrew from the USA market a few years back, leaving a vacuum for other airlines to fill in. "We will start services from the USA to Malaysia via Tokyo where passengers will be put on a Kuala Lumpur bound non-stop flight. We used to fly from Tokyo to Kuala Lumpur years back, and are now going to resume the flight service, deploying the latest B-787 Dreamliner aircraft. "However, on the New York-Tokyo sector, we will deploy B777-3000 aircraft," Vincent Kong, ANA's New York based Senior Sales Manager confirmed in an interview with Bernama at the New York Times Travel Show. ANA operates an extensive connectivity network between the USA and Japan. The carrier operates two daily flights to Tokyo from JFK New York airport, one daily flight each from Washington and Dallas, two daily flights from Chicago, two daily flights from Los Angeles, one from San Francisco, one from San Jose and one from Seattle. Over and above, the airline will soon launch a daily flight from Houston, Texas, to Tokyo. Passengers for Malaysia will be first flown from these points of origin to Tokyo and put on another plane bound for Kuala Lumpur. Asked to explain the factor that drove ANA to launch the Tokyo-Kuala Lumpur daily service, Kong replied: "We see a steady growth in demand for flights to Kuala Lumpur which is not directly served from the USA. As a member of the Star Alliance, there will, naturally, be code-sharing and other synergies with other airlines as well." The Tokyo to Kuala Lumpur flight will depart at 5.20pm (Tokyo time) each day and arrive in Kuala Lumpur at 11.35pm the same day and from Kuala Lumpur to Tokyo, the flight departure time will be 7am (Kuala Lumpur time) and arrive in Tokyo at 3pm (Tokyo time) on the same day. "We see a significant traffic potential from New York and Houston to Malaysia.. Our research study shows that there is good demand for this particular route," Kong said. -- BERNAMA

X