Booking Malindo flights and purchasing air tickets on both domestic and international routes is set to start or take off in the month of March 2013 as part of an aggressive regional and international expansion.
The move will see Malindo Airlines, which controls nearly 55 % of the air ticket travel market in Indonesia, working on catch-up to the region's top cheap airfares and low cost carrier AirAsia. It follows AirAsia's recent acquisition of Batavia Airlines in a bid to tap Indonesia's 237 million population with the launch of Malindo's budget airfare model.
Lion Airways will own 48.3 % of the new carrier Malindo Air, and Malaysia's National Aerospace and Defence Industries the remaining 51.9 %. Lion Airlines flights President Rusdi Kirana said Malindo Airlines will start flying between the three countries with a fleet of 12 new Boeing 737 planes in May, before expanding to other cities in Southeast Asia, selling overseas plane fares, tickets and booking reservations.
22 planes will be added each year to bring the total fleet to more than 109 in ten years. This includes adding Boeing 787 Dreamliner planes by 2016 to fly to routes in Singapore, Australia, China, Japan and India. Rusdi said booking malindo flights plane tickets prices will be competitive for Malindo Airlines, either in the same range as rival Air-Asia-X or "even little." Malindo airlines flights fleet of planes will be fitted with a lower-than-usual 151 seats coupled with inflight entertainment and soft meals, he said. It aims to offset lower revenue per plane due to fewer or lesser seats with higher frequency Malindo flights.
The launch of Malindo will bring stiff competition in the Asian aviation market. Competition is good for consumers as airfares would become cheaper with-in the Asia region. Once Malindo chisels it's was into the market, travellers can expect other carriers to offer cheaper flights and various programmes and promotions to sustain market share. Dominant players in the region such as AirAsia will need to maintain customer loyalty and the only key factor to keep up with the competition is to offer cheaper air tickets. So this a win-win situation for travellers.