AIRASIA will revive services between Kuala Lumpur and Solo from December 21 with thrice-weekly flights, more than two months after it suspended the route on September 2.

A recent statement released by the airline said: “Indonesia is a very important market and presents many opportunities for the airline to expand and prosper. The momentary breather on Kuala Lumpur-Solo early this year was part of the realigning process of its business plans in Indonesia, in order to effectively capitalise on the prospects presented by the market.”

The reimplemented service will run on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

Raaj Navaratnaa, general manager of New Asia Holiday Tours & Travel, said: “The flights augur well for Malaysia. We will promote Johor as a new family theme park destination and combine a day trip to Universal Studios Singapore. With direct flights, travellers can see two countries at half the cost.”

Affiliate AirAsia Indonesia also recently announced an increase in flight frequencies to Medan from Penang and Bangkok, effective December 1. Penang-Medan will see one more service per week, bumping frequency to 24 flights weekly, while the number of Bangkok-Medan flights will be increased from four to seven times weekly.

FIREFLY has teamed up with Malaysia-based travel agency, Concept Holidays, to provide direct charter services between Kuala Lumpur and Haikou, which began yesterday.

The weekly service will be operated by Firefly’s 160-seater B737-400 aircraft. On its part, Concept Holidays is responsible for marketing the seats and packaged tours, the carrier said in a release.

Firefly CEO, Ignatius Ong, said: “With our experience in managing charter flights, ability to meet our clients’ business needs and reputation for offering premium flight experiences at reasonable rates, we are confident we would be able to grow this segment (scheduled charters) of our business further.”

Ong said that the airline’s immediate focus was working with partners to offer more services to China, given the growing leisure and business demand.

“Additionally, the natural progression from operating scheduled charter flights would be to tap the MICE market. We’ve had some experience organising MICE holidays for selected clients to great success and we look forward to working with the right partners to create more memorable MICE experiences for our clients,” he added.

Haikou is Firefly’s second Chinese destination via scheduled charter service. In April this year, Firefly collaborated with Guangxi China International Travel Service to offer two weekly charter services to Nanning, from Kuala Lumpur and Penang respectively.

EARLY movers into Yangon will be handsomely rewarded, with the opportunity to grow rates substantially even though room supply is expected to grow by 36.7 per cent annually, revealed a hotel intelligence report by Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) Hotels.

With visitor arrivals leaping 45 per cent year-to-date in September 2012 over the same period in 2011, there has been a dearth in international standard rooms, pushing the estimated ADR in 2012 up 350 per cent over 2007’s figures.

Although there are about 8,000 rooms in Yangon, industry sources concur that international standard ones only account for 1,500-2,500 rooms.

This has given hotels leverage in renegotiating contracts with travel consultants for even higher room rates. The Myanmar government has implemented a US$150 cap to stymie soaring rates, though it only applies to lead-in rooms sold to travel consultants and tour operators, and expires March 2013.

International brands are scarce within Myanmar’s hotel industry, comprising 19.4 per cent of supply. Even if international hotel supply were to triple over the next few years, the Yangon market “still offers plenty of opportunities for early movers, given the severe lack of capacity currently”, said JLL senior vice president Andrew Langdon.

A new foreign investment law also allows businesses to be 100 per cent foreign-owned, and the government offers five-year income tax exemptions and 50-year land leases, with the option for further extensions.

On the other hand, challenges in the short- to medium-term include the lack of consistent power generation and a skilled labour pool. Land acquisition also remains difficult, and sources of funding, opaque, said JLL’s report.

FROM end-March 2013, Air France will terminate direct thrice-weekly Paris-Phnom Penh services, which was launched in April 2011 with a transit stop in Ho Chi Minh City.

Said Air France-KLM’s general manager – Mekong, Herve Moulin: “Air France will maintain its presence in Cambodia with an office, continuing to service customers, trade and corporate clients. It will maintain Phnom Penh as a destination through its partnership with Bangkok Airways to codeshare connecting flights beyond Bangkok.”

Diethelm Travel (Cambodia)’s managing director, Pierre Jungo, said: “We are sorry to hear about the flight cancellation. Luckily, Qatar Airways is launching flights to Phnom Penh, and these flights will bring us more clients than Air France.”

Meanwhile, Myanmar Airways International’s (MAI) twice-weekly Yangon-Siem Reap-Phnom Penh-Yangon service, which was suspended since September 19, will be reinstated starting December 1, 2012. The triangular routing will be de-linked and MAI will operate twice-weekly Yangon-Phnom Penh and Yangon-Siem Reap services.

THE Philippines and Thailand have entered into an agreement to increase the number of flights between Manila and Bangkok, following talks in the Thai capital last week.

According to the Philippines’ Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), 1,480 seats will be added to the current 5,400 weekly seats connecting Manila and Bangkok, while both countries have given the green light to unlimited traffic rights between points outside the capital cities.

The additional seats translate to a daily flight to be divided between the country’s top carriers, Philippine Airlines (PAL) and Cebu Pacific, both of which use smaller aircraft of up to 180-seat capacity on regional routes.

CAB records revealed that both carriers have yet to apply for routes outside Manila and Bangkok, but they are expected to take advantage of the regulations that will effectively open the Philippines’ secondary gateways to regional traffic.

Cebu Pacific, for instance, has expanded its regional hub outside of Manila as it continues to develop the gateways of Cebu and Iloilo in the Visayas and Davao in the south. Outside Manila, PAL’s hubs include Davao, Cebu and Bohol.

HOTELS looking to rid themselves of unsold rooms have a new option inCheckInTonight.asia, said to be South-east Asia’s first last-minute mobile hotel booking system.

Offering access to discounted hotels for same-day bookings, the mobile web application releases the three best hotel deals for each location – e.g. Phnom Penh, Siem Reap and Sihanoukville – each day at 11.00. Users are then able to book and confirm their last-minute hotel directly from their smartphone or tablet. Only properties vetted byCheckInTonight.asia will be listed, and they are classified as boutique, classic or deluxe.

Currently available only for Cambodia properties, it will be expanded to Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam by early 2013.

Mark Southby, managing director of CheckInTonight.asia, said: “We found that increasingly modern business travellers, tourists and even locals need to make short-term travel decisions. CheckInTonight.asia will now offer these travellers a quick and easy alternative to secure a last-minute room.”

“CheckInTonight.asia offers a great deal not only for travellers, but also for the hotels we work with,” Southby added. “For hotels, we are a marketplace to fill last-minute rooms that could otherwise remain empty. (The hoteliers) can decide themselves how much discount they want to offer in order to help sell their rooms for that night.”

SINGAPORE Airlines (SIA) is spreading its wings farther by adding its code to flights operated by Aegean Airlines to two cities in Greece and widening its agreement with Virgin Australia to cover more destinations in Australia.

The airline has inked a new pact to codeshare on its Star Alliance partner’s flights serving Athens from Frankfurt, London, Milan and Munich, and Thessaloniki from Frankfurt and Munich.

In return, Aegean will add its code to Singapore-bound flights out of Frankfurt, Milan and Munich, as well as beyond Singapore to Melbourne and Sydney. This will commence once the agreement receives regulatory approval.

SIA and Virgin have also expanded their codeshare agreement, which they entered into in 2011, with immediate effect.

SIA will place its code on all of Virgin’s domestic flights, covering 32 Australian cities, with plans to include flights between Australia and the New Zealand cities of Dunedin, Queenstown and Wellington in the future.

On its part, Virgin will codeshare with SIA on connections from Australia’s east coast to Europe and cities in Asia via the carrier’s Singapore hub, beginning 1Q2013. Virgin currently codeshares on SIA flights to Europe from Adelaide, Perth and Darwin.

Virgin’s customers will now have access to 64 destinations in Asia and 12 destinations in Europe on the SIA and SilkAir networks from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and Darwin.

FINNAIR and Malaysia Airlines (MAS) have established a new codeshare agreement, paving the way for more Scandinavian travellers to visit Kuala Lumpur.

Applicable for travel from December 1, selected MAS services between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, Bangkok and Hong Kong will carry the Finnair flight code. Likewise, MAS’ flight code will be used on selected Finnair services between Helsinki and London, Paris, Frankfurt and Amsterdam.

MAS senior vice president of government & international affairs, Germal Singh, said: “The arrangement with Finnair is part of our strategy to develop commercial cooperation with oneworld alliance members as we prepare towards becoming a full member of the alliance next year. This is also our initiative towards enhancing air connectivity with key priority markets overseas for increased tourist arrivals into Malaysia as required by our government’s Economic Transformation Programme.

“Through this partnership we can expand our reach in Europe without operating our own flights between Malaysia and the Scandinavian region.,,We are confident that more tourists from the Scandinavian region will use this codeshare and visit Malaysia.”

On February 1, 2013, MAS will join the oneworld alliance, of which Finnair is a member.

To promote these codeshare services, MAS is offering all-inclusive return fares starting from RM4,396 (US$1,438) for economy class and RM13,363 for business class.

HILTON Worldwide has launched the 250-key DoubleTree Resort by Hilton – Surin Beach in Phuket, marking the brand’s inaugural property in Thailand.

Formerly the Courtyard by Marriott, the rebranded, four-storey DoubleTree by Hilton resort features over 80 suites and three F&B outlets including Asia Alive, an all-day dining restaurant; The Boardwalk, a pool bar serving snacks; and a F&B retail outlet, The Food Store. There are four meetings rooms as well as a business centre, a fitness club, outdoor lagoon-style pools, water slides and a kids club.

“Thailand is a key focus market for us due to its enormous potential for growth and as we continue to expand our footprint here, the DoubleTree Resort by Hilton – Surin Beach marks the entry of one of our fastest growing brands, DoubleTree by Hilton, into Thailand,” said Martin Rinck, president, Asia Pacific, Hilton Worldwide.

Hilton Worldwide currently manages six properties in Thailand – Conrad Bangkok, Millennium Hilton Bangkok, Hilton Pattaya, Hilton Phuket Arcadia Resort and Spa, Hilton Hua Hin Resort and Spa and Conrad Koh Samui – and is set to open Hilton Sukhumvit Bangkok and DoubleTree by Hilton, Sukhumvit Bangkok in 2013.