Singapore’s Scoot to make six daily flights from Melaka airport

MELAKA: Singapore Airlines’ low-cost carrier Scoot is set to make its maiden flight to Melaka International Airport by the end of September, said Datuk Abdul Razak Abdul Rahman.

The state tourism, heritage, art and culture committee chairman said the airline is expected to make six daily flights from the airport within the next few months.

“We anticipate one flight to ferry 100 over passengers to the state, benefiting the local tourism industry.

“The state government has managed to secure a long-term deal with Scoot Airlines,” he said on Tuesday (July 9).

In September last year, commercial flights in and out of the airport came to a standstill following the abrupt exit of two service providers, hence the flights operated by Scoot will revive the airport.

The two airlines then cited a lack of passengers and high costs of operations to discontinue their services at the airport.

Previously, airlines served popular routes, like Pekan Baru, Indonesia and Penang from Melaka airport.

On March 5, Scoot announced that it will operate flights from Singapore to six Southeast Asian destinations with its new fleet of Embraer E190-E2 planes from May.

The six new destinations are Koh Samui in Thailand and Sibu in Malaysia, as well as existing destinations comprising HatYai and Krabi in Thailand, and Kuantan and Miri in Malaysia, said Singapore Airlines’ budget arm Scoot in a statement on March 5.

Earlier, during the state legislative assembly proceedings, Abdul Razak said the appointment of Chinese diva Fan Bingbing as the Visit Melaka Year 2024 (TMM2024) ambassador involved a sponsorship by companies amounting to RM498,347.

He said the state government only forked out RM77,850 of the total cost for Fan’s role as ambassador.

“The cost utilised by the state government is only for promotions and organising the programme while RM420,497, which encompasses expenditures like flight tickets, accommodation, transport and other arrangements at Encore Melaka was borne by several private companies, He said this in response to a question by Dr Mohd Aleef Yusof (Perikatan Nasional-Sungai Udang).