Asian low-cost specialist, AirAsia is to introduce only the fifth regular international route from Jieyang Chaoshan International Airport, a modern facility that serves the cities of Jieyang, Shantou and Chaozhou in eastern Guangdong Province in China. The new route, AirAsia’s 14th exclusive route between Malaysia and China, will commence from March 25, 2016 and will be operated using a 180-seat Airbus A320.
The new four times weekly link from Kuala Lumpur will add to the destination’s established links to Bangkok (China Southern, Shenzhen Airlines), Hong Kong (China Southern), Singapore (Jetstar Asia) and Taipei (China Southern) and will bring new connectivity across Asia and the Pacific through the AirAsia and AirAsia X networks from Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
“We are very happy to add Shantou into our list of destinations in China,” said Spencer Lee, Head of Commercial for AirAsia. “There has been a demand for this route, and we are positive that this route will further add towards the number of Chinese tourist arrivals into Malaysia, especially with the recent announcement by the government to relax visa policies for China visitors into the country.”
Located on the eastern coast of Guangdong province, Shantou may not have blossomed to such a high degree as the other original Special Economic Zones in China, it remains a key economic centre in the region.
A city significant in 19th-century Chinese history as one of the treaty ports established for Western trade and contact, it is home to many popular attractions which together have become known as the Eights Sights of Shantou (Nan Ao Island, Qing Ao Bay, Lotus Peak, Queshi Scenic Spot, Chen CiHong’s former residence, Symbolic Tower of the Tropic of Cancer, Zhongshan Park and Rainbow Shadows in the Harbour).
The city is also recognised as one of the primary hometowns of Chinese who are living abroad and this will bring additional VFR demand to the business and leisure flows. It has an estimated population (2010) of just over 5.3 million people with the wider Chaoshan metropolitan catchment home to an estimated permanent population of around 14 million people.
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