18 theSun | MONDAY NOVEMBER 24 2008

media & marketing

Firm wins
‘superior’ award Airline’s additional
flight to S’pore
AMASSURANCE Berhad con- The award won by AmAs-
tinues a good year of award surance follows the Regional
wins by bagging “The Superior Outstanding Entrepreneurship
Company” category at the Busi- Award which it won in July.
ness Of The Year 2007 Award for AmAssurance CEO Ng Lian
its record of posting profits for Lu received the award from
four consecutive years. Housing and Local Government
The Superior Company cat- Deputy Minister Datuk Robert
egory award is given to compa- Lau at the award presentation
nies based on steady record of ceremony hosted by the SMI
business profits for the past four & SME Worldwide Network at
consecutive financial years. Kuala Lumpur recently. Parents
The Business of the Year “We are delighted to receive
2007 Awards is opened to all this award and it will further
know
listed companies, small and me- motivate AmAssurance’s staff less
dium-size enterprises/industries, and agency members to better pg 21
government-linked corpora- service our customers.
tions, foreign and international “We take this opportunity to
companies from all industries thank all our life and general in-
or enterprises incorporated in surance customers too for their
Malaysia and overseas. loyal support,” he said.
Commercial radio rides the high waves
COMMERCIAL Radio Malaysia has months of this year,” said Commer-
extended its reach and maintained cial Radio Malaysia president Datuk
strong Adex, according to Nielsen Borhanuddin Osman.
Radio Audience Measurement (RAM) He added that trend studies also
Survey 2 2008. show an impressive 207% increase
The survey recorded an increase in in advertising spending in August this
weekly radio listenership from 14.5 mil- year compared with the corresponding
lion to 15 million listeners, representing period in 2000. The spread in listener-
91.9% of the total population of people ship may be attributed to the boost
aged 10 years and above. in Malay and Chinese listeners, with
“The Adex remains strong, owning Bahasa Malaysia format stations Era,
5.3% of total advertising market share Hot FM, Sinar and Chinese station MY
(excluding classifieds and record- FM entering the top five list.
ing a double-digit growth of 20.5% Radio also received increases on
to RM185.8 million in the first eight all time-belts, with drive-time showing
by Angela Sargunan
newsdesk@thesundaily.com
DUE to overwhelming response
from its guests, AirAsia will
be adding one more frequency
to Singapore from its Kuala
Lumpur hub.
With this addition, the largest
and leading low-cost carrier in
Asia will now have a total of
seven daily direct flights from
highest improvement at 4% increase
per week.
“This can be attributed to better
content from radio players amidst fer-
vent competition, where we have seen
the emergence of other radio brands
over the last few years, namely Fly FM,
Hot FM, Traxx FM, and newbies Capital
FM, Radio24 and Bfm,” he said.
Undoubtedly, the presence of
new players and application of better
programming and technology fuel the
industry to improve with the changing
needs and preferences of the public
and media landscape.
Kuala Lumpur to Singapore
commencing Dec 1.
To celebrate this new
frequency, AirAsia is offering
free seats and waiving the fuel
surcharges (terms apply), so
guests will have to bear the taxes
and administration fee only.
The offer is available
exclusively online at AirAsia’s
website www.airasia.com for the
travel period from Dec 1 till July
31.
“We have been steadily
building up our presence in the
‘Lion City’, having only recently
announced four additional
frequencies from Kuala Lumpur
and new daily flights from
Kota Kinabalu and Kuching to
Singapore in October alone,” said
AirAsia commercial regional
head Kathleen Tan.
“There are robust demands
between the two major cities and
tourist gateways in the region.
Since its inception last February,
we have recorded over 90%
passenger load.
“We are confident that this
additional flight will do just as
well. We have over 108 routes
Tan ... AirAsia building up presence
in Singapore.
and 60 destinations – the most
extensive network compared
with other budget carriers in the
region.
“Our guests could benefit
from our vast network to travel
to other regional Asean cities or
connect the long-haul sectors
serviced by AirAsia X to Gold
Coast, Perth, and Melbourne
in Australia or to Hangzhou,
China,” she added.
In total, the AirAsia group
will have 101 flights weekly to
Singapore from various points in
the region.
It includes 49 flights weekly
from Kuala Lumpur, seven
flights weekly from Kota
Kinabalu, seven flights weekly
from Kuching, seven flights
weekly from Phuket, 28 flights
weekly from Bangkok and three
flights weekly from Pekanbaru,
Indonesia.