New Zealand boosts defence spend to US$6.6 billion and vows increased closeness with Australia
This budget will be spent over the next four years and nearly doubles the country’s defence spending as part of GDP to 2%.
AirAsia adds to KL?Hangzhou service
AirAsia’s long-haul, low-fare affiliate, AirAsia X is to increase the frequency on its route between Kuala Lumpur and Hangzhou, the gateway to Shanghai, by moving to direct daily flights from 28 March.
“The response has been extremely good as we are running past 80% load factor for the Hangzhou–Kuala Lumpur routes. This demand has enabled us to ramp-up our frequency,” explained Kathleen Tan, regional head of commercial, AirAsia. “The increased frequency is testament to the AirAsia’s commitment of making travel accessible and affordable to all. It will also provide both business and leisure travellers with more flexibility and greater choice to connect onto AirAsia and AirAsia X’s extensive route network across ASEAN countries and beyond. We have always positioned Hangzhou as our Eastern gateway into the Yangtze Delta region as it takes only 75 minutes from Hangzhou to Shanghai by bullet train and the inbound travellers from China can also take advantage of Kuala Lumpur’s status as a gateway to Asia, Australia, Europe and beyond.”
The Kuala Lumpur–Hangzhou route is serviced by Airbus A330-300s, which holds 383 economy seats including 28 premium seats which have a 60-inch seat pitch.
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