Members of the public stopping by at one of the tourist attraction booths during the Travel Mart Travel Promotion 'Jom Ke Melaka' at The Mall Gadong yesterday. Picture: BT/Yusri Adanan

MELAKA’S Chief Minister is keen on seeing Brunei’s national carrier fly to the Malaysian state at least once a week using the state’s new international airport.

Datuk Seri Hj Mohd Ali Mohd Rustam, who launched the “Visit Melaka Tourist Promotion” during the 13th Sukan Malaysia (Sukma) at the Centrepoint Hotel yesterday, said that he will be extending a formal invitation to Royal Brunei Airlines (RBA).

Dato’ Zulkifli Mohamad, general manager at the Tourism Promotion Division of Melaka’s Chief Minister Department, said that he had held preliminary talks with top officials from the Ministry of Communications and has met with Hj Omar Ali Hj Mohd Daud from Royal Brunei Airlines.

“We were unable to meet with the Ministry of Communications yesterday as they had a tight schedule, so we are scheduled to meet today with officials from the ministry,” he said when asked whether any contact has been made with RBA.

Datuk Seri Hj Mohd Ali added that if Melaka gets a Boeing 737 once a week, that would translate to about 100 tourists from Bruneians.

“This amounts to 400 a month and 4,800 a year. It’s a small amount, but meaningful to start with. Out of all our tourists, everybody spends around RM500 ($220) but Bruneians, of course, will spend more,” Datuk Seri Hj Mohd Ali said.

In return, the chief minister assured that Melakans can also be expected to come to Brunei for holiday’s.

“In the past, we have been going all over Malaysian (states) and to other Asean countries like Indonesia, which has a daily flight and three to four times by boat, Singapore, Thailand and so on but very few come to Brunei. This is good exposure for Malaysians especially for Melakans to come to Brunei as a new destination, that’s why I’m looking forward for RBA to come to Melaka.”

He said the Melaka airport is about 10km from the city centre. It spans 141 acres and has a landing strip 2,135m long and 45m wide. “Our new airport will be able to accommodate Airbus A320s and Boeing 737-400s and will have a terminal building which can accept a capacity of 1.5 million passengers a year,” he said.

The Malaysian state is also in talks to have other airlines like Lion Air, Neptune Air and Firefly fly to the airport.

Datuk Seri Hj Mohd Ali said that the Melaka International Airport is one of the busiest airports in Malaysia because of the Malaysian Flying Academy.

Melaka from 1999 to 2009 attracted 47.25 million tourists with an average yearly increase of 20 per cent.

In 2009 alone, Melaka received a total of 8.9 million tourist arrivals versus 7.2 million in 2008, which is a 23.6 per cent increase. This year, Melaka expects 8.2 million tourist arrivals. The Brunei Times

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