ADDRESS BY MR. WAN ZAIDI WAN ABDULLAH, CONSUL GENERAL OF MALAYSIA AT THE INAUGURAL EVENT OF THE COMMENCEMENT OF ASIR ASIA X SERVICES FROM MUMBAI TO KUALA LUMPUR, 6 MAY 2010
Good afternoon, Salam Sejahtera and Namaste,
Dato’ Sri Tony Fernandes
Group Chief Executive Officer, AirAsia Berhad
Mr Azran Othman Rani
CEO, Air Asia X
Ms Kathelin Tan
Regional Manager (South Asia)
Asia Asia
Mr. Manoharan
Director of Tourism Malaysia
Distinguished guests,
Media friends from India and Malaysia,
Ladies and gentlemen,
First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude and my utmost appreciation for the kind invitation extended to me, to be part of this celebration. Let me also welcome the Group CEO of Air Asia Berhad and its team to Mumbai to witness the commencement of the Air Asia X services from Mumbai Kuala Lumpur.
Mumbai is not just the largest city in India, but also the hub of India’s financial and commercial sector and not forgetting also it is the heart of India’s film industry. For all these reasons, Mumbai has been the most important gateway to India and has the busiest international airports.
From here we can also notice that the government and the people of Maharashtra have been ever dynamic and progressive. Its dynamism has largely contributed to the general prosperity of India as a whole.
It is important to also note that over the last few years, the economic and social exchanges between Malaysia and the western region of India have tremendously increased. Malaysia is no longer a distanced destination to business travelers or tourists from Mumbai and Maharashtra.
The close and cordial relations between Malaysia and India have encouraged further expansion of business exchanges, and flows of people between Malaysia and this region. We also witness more and more participation of Malaysian companies in various sectors in Maharashtra and at the same time a significant increase in tourist arrivals in Malaysia from the western India.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
We are here today to celebrate and to congratulate the achievement of another great milestone of Air Asia internationally and in particular in India. After its overwhelming success of Air Asia’s first India destination of Trichi, in a short span of time, Air Asia services have rapidly expanded to Kochi, Trivandrum, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Delhi, Hyderabad and of course to Mumbai. This rapid expansion is a testimony of the great success of Air Asia in its global expansion.
With regard to the start of the Air Asia X services to Mumbai, it is undeniably an extremely important breakthrough for Air Asia to cover the most important city and the gateway to India. For a fairly long hauled service, we can now see that Mumbai and Kuala Lumpur is now connected, not by one but two airline companies based in Malaysia.
The Air Asia X services will be seen as a great effort made to promote more travel and business opportunities for both Malaysian and India. This is well in line with the government efforts to boost the relations between both countries as presided by the Official Visit of Hon. Prime Minister of Malaysia to India last January.
I am sure that the commencement of the Air Asia X services between Mumbai to Kuala Lumpur has been anticipated by many travelers, in western India and Malaysia. This anticipation is now over the common people of Maharashtra and all over western India can easily get closer to their friends, their families and their preferred holiday destinations Malaysia Truly Asia.
As everyone know, Air Asia services will make air traveling affordable to all, I am taking this opportunity to encourage the people of Mumbai, Maharashtra and all over western region of India to start planning to explore what Malaysia Truly Asia could offer and with the Air Asia X services commencing, all these can be realized in a much more affordable way.
Ladies and gentlemen,
I would like to again congratulate AirAsia for its great achievement in expanding its network to Mumbai, and joining India’s most important frontier in aviation connectivity. I wish to also thank the representatives of various agencies in Maharashtra for being here and showing their enthusiasm in having a world class affordable carrier for their journey to explore Malaysia.
Thank you very much.
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