123 stranded China tourists fly home from Sabah on chartered flight

The tourists from Hubei, China, flew home on a Xiamen Airlines chartered flight from the Kota Kinabalu International Airport at 6.30pm. (Bernama pic)

KOTA KINABALU: A total of 123 tourists from Hubei, China, flew home on a Xiamen Airlines chartered flight from the Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA) today at 6.30pm.

They boarded the chartered flight at the initiative of the government of China after all flights from Wuhan, China, were cancelled following the 2019 novel coronavirus outbreak.

The president of the Malaysia-China Friendship Association (Ma-Zhong) of Sabah Dr Oh Ei Sun said he was informed that the group of tourists had been in Kota Kinabalu since Jan 23.

‘’They could not go back to China after the temporary cancellation of all flights from this country to Wuhan prior to this and all flights to China from KKIA since yesterday following the virus infection,’’ he told Bernama after sending off the group of tourists at KKIA.

He said the association was unaware of the number of tourists from China who were still in the state, but was prepared to give any aid needed to fly them home.

Earlier, there were 10 direct flights from Wuhan to KKIA a week, namely seven flights managed by AirAsia and three by Malindo Air. - FMT