JAKARTA, Sept 13 (Bernama) -- The impending influx of visitors into Iskandar Malaysia is opening business opportunities to airline operators and charter flight services to provide regional air connectivity into the Senai Airport, Johor.

Chief Executive of Iskandar Regional Development Authority (IRDA) Datuk Ismail Ibrahim said the regional air connectivity could service passengers to travel and return on the same day, like in a two-hour flights.

"Iskandar Malaysia is already in the situation whereby the operating airlines cannot just ignore its existence because Iskandar Malaysia alone is going to bring 4 to 6 million visitors with all the offerings that we have, that is a fact that we cannot ignore," he told Bernama in an interview here.

Local airlines namely AirAsia and Malaysia Airlines have been made aware of the situation and they are believed to be working on something, he said.

Ismail said the Senai Airport in Iskandar Malaysia has all the ingredients and capability to also handle charter flight services because it was already an international airport.

"It (the airport) has organised charter flights, it has the necessary connectivity, the industrial areas, and when we talk about inbound and outbound, it might not be limited only to passengers only, we are also talking about cargo," he said.

Ismail said Iskandar Malaysia has been getting hundreds and hundreds of Koreans over the winter months on charter flights, and they were there just to take two to three months off because of the winter season in Korea.

"They stayed in the resorts in Iskandar Malaysia and they played golf. Some of them went to Sabah later," he said.

The charter flights that brought in the Koreans are organised by travel agents, he said.