Spurred by the healthy rise in air traffic this year, Malaysia Airlines (MAS) (3786) plans to revamp its fleet and scale up operations to achieve 30 to 40 per cent passenger growth in the Indian sector next year.
After cooling slightly in the last two years, owing to global economic pinch, passenger volume picked up steadily this year, giving MAS an edge to better its performance than in 2009.
MAS regional senior vice-president for South Asia Azahar Hamid said over the past two years the carrier was "quite affected by the slowdown" but load factor had touched 80 to 90 per cent since last January, enjoying almost full flights daily from major Indian airports.
"For next year we are looking at 30 to 40 per cent growth rate in load. We are going very strong in India. Based on our market projections, traffic going out of India is very strong and positive," he said.
Currently, the national carrier flies to five major Indian cities namely Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai with plans in the pipeline to tap into emerging second tier Indian cities.
As part of it 2011 ambitious expansion strategy in India, the carrier would revamp its frequency to its regular destinations.
MAS would commence two daily flights (at present one daily service) to Chennai, a major gateway to Malaysian cities.
It would introduce daily morning flights to Delhi beginning April, increasing from the current five-day weekly service. This is in addition to the existing daily night flights.
Likewise, there would be daily services from Bangalore and Hyderabad to Malaysia in 2011.
In addition, MAS plans to mount daily morning flights from Mumbai, India's financial capital, to Malaysia, adding to the existing daily night flights.
"As planned, we are putting in additional 40 per cent capacity in India. Despite competition, we are mounting additional capacity because there is a steady demand for our kind of full air service carrier," added Azahar.
To meet passenger demand and tap the Indian market, with international passenger traffic growth at nearly 8 per cent in 2010, MAS is gearing to revamp its fleet as well. It will switch from the B777, used at present, and introduce the A380 aircraft to India by 2012.
"By 2015 we will be flying the youngest fleet in this region or in Asia. By 2012 the fleet of A380 and the A330 renewed version will be coming into India," said Azahar. - Bernama