Low-cost airline, AirAsia is strengthening its route network and connectivity in the world's most populated country, China, with its newest route from Kuala Lumpur to Nanning.

The airline is offering a special all-in-fare from as low as RM99, one way in conjunction with the announcement of the new route and is available for booking from tomorrow until Sept 16.

In a statement here today, it said the route is the only direct flight available from KL to Nanning and will commence operations with three times weekly flights from Dec 11, 2012.

The route will complement the AirAsia Group's network connectivity from Asean to China, especially with the recent announcement of Bangkok to Wuhan flights operated by Thai AirAsia.

"KL-Nanning will be AirAsia Group's 22nd route to China," it said.

Guests can obtain these fares online at www.airasia.com from Sept 12-16, 2012, for travel period from Dec 11, 2012 to May 22, 2013.

AirAsia's Commercial Group Head, Kathleen Tan said: "China is a great market for us to explore and expand our route network and connectivity.

"We are seeing a greater demand between both ends especially for business travel, and we hope to showcase what Nanning has to offer to the average of 30 million guests that fly through our network every year, and for the Chinese to use our Kuala Lumpur hub to connect to more than 75 destinations that AirAsia flies to.

"We are glad to be able to provide the only direct flight from Kuala Lumpur to Nanning and we are confident that flight loads will pick-up once we open this new destination for sale, especially with the importance of Nanning as a city that works closely with the Asean countries to promote investment and trade
between China and Asean."

Nanning city is also known as the 'green city' due to its abundance of greenery and natural landscape, and is the capital of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in Southern China.

The city is situated about 160km from Vietnam border and located beside the Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangdong and Hunan provinces. -- Bernama