INDIA’S aviation authority has granted Malindo Air an operating licence for proposed flights between India and Malaysia, a move that could lead to cheaper fares on the route.

Malindo will kickstart daily flights from Kuala Lumpur to New Delhi on December 30, daily flights to Trichy on January 2 and daily flights to Mumbai on February 15.

Chandran Rama Muthy, CEO of Malindo Air, said in a statement: “The decision to start our services to these long-awaited new routes emphasises the value and importance of tourism, trade and business links between India and Malaysia. We believe these new services will support Tourism Malaysia’s Visit Malaysia Year 2014 (VMY14) campaign.”

Eva Ristina, executive director at Kuala Lumpur-based inbound operator Tina Travel & Agencies, said Malindo’s entry is very much welcome as it will add much needed seat capacity especially on the Mumbai and New Delhi routes.

Seat capacity on the routes fell following AirAsia X’s exit early last year, when the LCC suspended its four weekly flights between Kuala Lumpur and Mumbai on January 31. Daily service to New Delhi was stopped on March 22 (TTG Asia e-Daily, January 13, 2012).

Both the Kuala Lumpur-New Delhi route and Kuala Lumpur-Mumbai route are currently monopolised by Malaysia Airlines (MAS) (TTG Asia e-Daily, September 27, 2012).

MAS offers twice-daily services between Kuala Lumpur and New Delhi, and six flights weekly to Mumbai.

Eva added: “Hopefully MAS will relook their pricing strategy as there is now competition on the Kuala Lumpur-Mumbai and Kuala Lumpur-New Delhi routes.

“With lower fares offered by Malindo Air, Indian outbound tour operators will be able to work out lower packages rates for Malaysia, which will make the destination more competitive. The new services are timely in anticipation of VMY14.”

SHANGHAI will become home to the world’s largest integrated indoor winter resort in 2018, to be known as Winterland Shanghai.

The resort is a project by Singapore-based property developer KOP Properties and will reportedly cost 13.5 billion yuan (US$2.2 billion).

According to Singapore broadsheet The Straits Times, Winterland Shanghai will feature the world’s longest indoor ski trail, a water park, a tree-lined hiking trail and a beach club.

The paper quoted company chairman Ong Chih Ching as saying that the resort would also offer housing, office, retail and hotel space besides its winter attractions.

KOP has inked an agreement with a local district government in Shanghai for the resort, and construction on the 18-hectare piece of land is scheduled to start in 3Q2014.

TOURISM Malaysia is going deeper into cyberspace with the recent launch of its integrated digital marketing programme, intended to complement existing marketing efforts for Visit Malaysia Year (VMY) 2014.

Said Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz, minister of tourism and culture: “Global media consumption is rapidly shifting towards the digital world, thus it is apt that Tourism Malaysia follows suit and goes where the future lies.

“Social media and social networking are on a steady rise, reaching out to nearly one in four people around the world. The number of social media users are expected to rise from 1.5 billion in 2012 to 1.7 billion this year, which is an increase of 18 per cent.”

The integrated digital marketing programme was designed to support VMY 2014 promotions and includes video content on YouTube and TrulyAsia.TV, the ShareMy initiative to encourage tourists to explore Malaysia virtually in the online social realm, as well as Facebook and Twitter presences, the Tourism Malaysia website and a mobile travel app, known as The Malaysia Trip Planner.

The Malaysian government has allocated a budget of RM1.2 billion (US$374.2 million) over a two-year period starting this year for the implementation of VMY 2014 programmes, as well as advertising and promotional expenditure.

VMY 2014 will be officially launched on January 4, 2014 at Dataran Merdeka, Kuala Lumpur. With over 200 tourism events scheduled throughout the whole of next year, the government is targeting 28 million tourist arrivals and RM76 billion in tourism receipts.

PHILIPPINE Airlines (PAL) is making a comeback to the Saudi Arabian cities of Riyadh and Dammam after years of absence on these routes.

Beginning today, PAL will commence four-times-weekly flights to Riyadh. Flying every Sunday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, PAL flights leave Manila at 08.15 and arrive in Riyadh at 13.30. PAL suspended Riyadh services in March 2011.

From December 3, the carrier will restart thrice-weekly services to Dammam after a 12-year hiatus. Flights out of Manila will operate every Monday, Tuesday and Saturday, leaving at 13.35 and arriving in Dammam at 18.00.

The airline will deploy Airbus A330-300 aircraft on these routes.

The restarted direct services are expected to be a boon to the 1.8 million Filipino expatriates in Saudi Arabia alone.

Last month, PAL resumed flights to London after being struck off the European Union’s aviation blacklist (TTG Asia e-Daily, September 18, 2013).

JW MARRIOTT Hanoi is aiming to take the second spot in the Vietnamese capital’s hospitality market and pioneer a new wave of development for the city’s MICE sector.

The 450-room five-star hotel, which soft-opened in October, is the JW Marriott brand’s first property in Vietnam and the first five-star branded hotel to open in Hanoi for seven years. Its 17 meetings rooms with a combined total space of 3,600m² and location next to the Vietnam National Convention Center is aimed at catalysing the city’s nascent MICE industry which has suffered from a lack of space, said Nelson Chow, director of sales and marketing at the hotel.

“We are aiming to be recognised as the new landmark MICE hotel in Hanoi,” he said, adding the property has the second largest events space in the city after the Meliá Hanoi, with the largest space on a single floor.

In a city where most properties are low- to mid-range local hotels, there is little competition at the top end. Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi leads the market, with its 112-year old heritage architecture and history, followed by Hilton, InterContinental, Sheraton and Sofitel Plaza.

“Previously nothing came close to the Metropole,” said Chow. “We’ve opened now and we’re looking to create and occupy that number two position in Hanoi.”

PEACE and quiet rank high on the Indian traveller’s wish list, with 73 per cent of Indians in favour of child-free zones on flights, according to a Skyscanner survey.

Children below the age of 12 should be banned from certain areas of the plane, said a majority of respondents.

However, men came out as stronger supporters of child-free zones than women. Two out of five male respondents said they would pay up to 10 per cent more to ensure they would not be sitting next to passengers with children. The ratio of men to women backing child-free zones is 4:3.

This is in line with the finding that 70 per cent of men rated peace and quiet as very important to them during flights, slightly higher than 66 per cent for women.

Kavitha Gnanamurthy, marketing manager India, Skyscanner, said: “An unpertubed travel experience is important for most of us. Thus, it comes as no surprise that Indian travellers would like to see child-free zones on planes, particularly men, who are less patient and hassled by noisy children.

“Our survey highlights the fact that women, in contrast, were against banning children on certain sections of aircraft as they felt that it was impractical to expect children to remain quiet throughout the flight.”

LCCs such as AirAsia X and Scoot are considering implementing quiet zones where children are not allowed.