Rise of the red rovers

Warmest welcome: Manoharan (right) presenting souvenirs to passengers of Qingdao Airlines flight QW9893 at the Qingdao Airlines inaugural flight celebration ceremony. — Bernama

KUALA LUMPUR: There has been a surge in the number of Chinese travellers coming to Malaysia following the increase of red-eye flights here from their home country, according to Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB).

Red-eye flights are rising in popularity, with officials reporting a 28% increase of such flights arriving at KL International Airport (KLIA) during the first half of the year compared with the same period last year, with flights from China accounting for 74% of them.