KUALA LUMPUR: Batik Air, formerly Malindo Air, will launch daily flights between Kuala Lumpur and Tokyo-Narita International Airport, Japan from Dec 15.
The carrier, in a statement, said it would utilise the brand-new Boeing 737-8 aircraft, which is fitted with 12 business and 150 economy class seats.
Batik Air chief executive officer Captain Mushafiz Mustafa Bakri said the new services to Narita reflect the carrier's commitment to grow the network reach and also expand the operations into the popular North Asian market.
"These new flights will strengthen the position of KLIA as a transit hub, providing convenient and seamless connectivity between key markets such as Australia, South Asia, Asean and Japan," he said.
Batik Air said the flight, coded OD680, would depart Kuala Lumpur (KLIA) at 12.35 pm and arrive Narita at 8.50 pm.
The return flight OD681 will depart Narita at 10.00 pm and arrive in KLIA at 05.10 am.
It said the new direct flights would offer convenient travel between Malaysia and Japan to cater for tourism and business activities.
"Japan is the third largest economy in the world and is one of Malaysia's key trading partners with longstanding trade relations.
"The special ties between the two countries continue to generate demand for people-to-people contacts," it said.
The flights are now open for bookings and in conjunction with the launch, Batik Air is offering an all-inclusive one-way promotional fare of RM1,599 for economy class and RM4,959 for business class ex-Malaysia and 57,300 yen for economy class and 178,000 yen for business class ex-Japan.
Batik Air is planning to expand into additional points in Japan such as Chitose Airport in Sapporo and Osaka.