- (L-R) MTPB Deputy Director General (Promotion) Dato’ Sri Abdul Khani Daud, GHIAL CEO SGK Kishore His Excellency Dato’ Hidayat Abdul Hamid – High Commissioner of Malaysia and Datuk Mohd Badlisham Ghazali, Managing Director, MAHB during the MoA signing ceremony at Hyderabad.
INDIA/MALAYSIA. GMR Hyderabad International Airport (GHIAL), Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (MAHB) and Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board (MTPB) have signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) today to boost travel between Hyderabad Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) and Malaysia.
With an aim to enhance the visibility of the ‘Destination Malaysia’ campaign in Hyderabad and the catchment area of RGIA, the agreement involves collaborative market research, strategy development, promotional campaigns and marketing.
Over 100,000 passengers travel between RGIA and Malaysia every year with traffic growing by a +28% CAGR in the past five years. Both Malaysia Airlines and AirAsia Berhad operate daily flights between Hyderabad and Kuala Lumpur and there is growing interest from other airlines due to the potential of the route; around just four hours in flight time.
The agreement was signed today by GHIAL CEO SGK Kishore, MAHB Managing Director Datuk Mohd Badlisham Ghazali and MTPB Deputy Director General (Promotion) Dato’ Sri Abdul Khani Daud at ceremony in the presence of His Excellency Dato’ Hidayat Abdul Hamid – High Commissioner of Malaysia and dignitaries from the participating organisations.
Kishore said: “This is a strategic initiative, which we have taken up to enhance the outbound tourism from our catchment region to key international destinations to enhance RGIA’s international connectivity and traffic growth. We are hopeful that through these efforts we can encourage a new segment of potential tourists from our region. This in turn will help the airlines operating between Hyderabad and Malaysia, thus providing greater tourism and connectivity options for people in the State of Telangana and adjoining regions.”
Ghazali said: “This mutually beneficial three-way partnership will enhance the visibility of Malaysia’s tourism attractions in Hyderabad and surrounding areas. This will in turn boost arrivals of Indians from South-central India to Malaysia.”
Daud added: “[The MoA] will lead to Malaysia being aggressively promoted in South-Central India via promotional campaigns in key locations especially GMR-Hyderabad International Airport. The three partners will focus our promotional efforts towards airlines, tour operators, travel agents, destination management companies, MICE agents, and the media to boost tourism.”
RGIA served 15.24 million passengers in FY2016-17, registering a growth of around +22% in overall passenger traffic and +23% growth in air traffic movements over FY2015-16. Its route network has established it as the ‘Gateway of Choice’ in the South and Central Indian region, according to RGIA, which recorded a +56% growth in domestic transfer passengers in FY17 and over FY16.
RGIA routes include 39 domestic and 18 international destinations. To cater to the growing passenger traffic, RGIA will soon expand and significantly enhance its capacity.
