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AIRASIA develops a medical tourism business that serves charter flights for patients and medical tourists from Indonesia to neighboring countries during the current COVID-19 pandemic.
According to AirAsia Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Karen Chan said this to the media in Kuala Lumpur, after welcoming the first international medical charter flight from Medan to Penang International Airport.
“Patients and medical tourists from Indonesia now have greater access to medical care and healthcare in Malaysia as AirAsia seeks to play a bigger and more active role in this sector by providing medical charter flight services,” she said.
Karen said the medical lease service will expand to other cities in Indonesia and soon develop into an end to end service offering under the AirAsia platform.
“Amidst travel restrictions in these difficult times, AirAsia is committed to connecting people with their critical needs, and I would like to commend our AirAsia Health team for facilitating this medical charter flight from Medan to Penang,” she noted.
Karen Chan explained the next medical charter flight from Indonesia would be from Jakarta to Kuala Lumpur on August 24. These are stressful times for families with members suffering from chronic illnesses requiring specialized medical care. AirAsia is working closely with medical institutions and government authorities to ensure arriving patients experience a smooth journey from Indonesia to Malaysia.
“It will continue to work with strategic partners such as Island Hospital in Penang and with the full support of Malaysia Healthcare Travel (MHT). Indonesia as a country contributes the highest ‘inbound’ health care tourists arriving to Malaysia. AirAsia Health will launch an end-to-end online health and wellness platform on AirAsia.com in the near future,” she affirmed.
Meanwhile, the Consul General of the Republic of Indonesia (KJRI) in Penang, Bambang Suharto welcomed the charter flight because it would not only make it easier for Indonesian patients to get health services in Penang, but also in a bigger picture, can reopen transportation between Indonesia and Malaysia for interests of the people in both countries. Of course, it must follow the SOP set by the governments of the two countries.
Meanwhile, the Head of Marketing of the Kuala Lumpur State Heart Institute, Akim Affandi Ahmad, as one of the heart centers of choice for Indonesian patients, his party praised the services provided by AirAsia.
“We believe this will follow the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) set by the government.
After the Medan-Penang flight, they will follow up with Soekarno-Hatta Airport flights Cengkareng-Kuala Lumpur and Surabaya-Kuala Lumpur. During the pandemic we had one yesterday via the ‘air ambulance’ but many were unable to use it because of that the ‘charter flight’ is interesting,” he concluded. [antaranews/photo special]
