Malaysia Airlines Targets New Destinations In India

Jyoti Koul - New Delhi

Malaysia Airlines, who has always been bullish about the India market, is out to take advantage of India's announcement to allow ASEAN countries to fly to 18 tourist destinations. Having recently commenced operations to Ahmedabad, the airline is now looking at new ports of call namely Amritsar, Trivandrum, Trichi and Kochi. The launch for these new flights are slated for mid-August with a thrice a week frequency.

Explains Syed Abdillah Aziz, regional manager - South Asia, Malaysian Airlines, "At the moment we are emphasising on enhancing our network in the country as India and China are our major markets. We would look at commencing operations to as many destinations since India has a large potential middle class segment. Further, flying to smaller cities would certainly mean taking the pressure off the major metros. For instance, Ahmedabad will partly help take the load off Mumbai and Amritsar would do the same for Delhi."

"We have already taken the responsibility of promoting India in Malaysia to improve a two-way traffic and sustain the viability of the route. When we launched our Ahmedabad flight, we brought a group of 10 media and 20 travel agents on a fam trip to promote India in Malaysia. We are working on a similar deal for Kolkata as well. Moreover, in our effort to serve Indians better the airline has introduced Jain meals on board, apart from recruiting Indian crew," added Aziz.

The airline plans to introduce the 545-seater A380 on the Chennai route in future, which is now being serviced by B737-400. With seven flights a week to Chennai currently, the airline still fails to meet the demand. "We will take a decision after we get the delivery of the first aircraft in 2006 because flying a big aircraft needs adequate infrastructure," concluded Aziz.