MAS' Down Under flights to fuel Oz market

Malaysia Airlines (MAS) is ramping up frequencies to Sydney and Melbourne with additional flights to come on stream from November 21 onwards.

The airline’s double-daily operations from Kuala Lumpur to Sydney will see four more weekly flights added for a total of 18 weekly flights. This will be raised further to 21 flights from February 5 next year. Its Melbourne service will also be boosted from twice-daily to thrice-daily on November 21.

Holiday Tours’ vice president inbound, David Jayabalan, said the increased capacity will help grow tourism for both Malaysia and Australia. The change in frequencies is also timely given the country’s campaign Visit Malaysia Year 2014, he added.

“Hopefully, the increased capacity will also reduce airfares as that would encourage a higher number of Australians to visit Malaysia. For the Australian market, Malaysia competes with other destinations such as Bali, Jakarta, Hong Kong and the Philippines,” commented Arokia Das, senior manager, Luxury Tours Malaysia.

“We will promote beach stays in Peninsular Malaysia and nature tours to Taman Negara National Park and to East Malaysia.”

Earlier this year, MAS also upped the capacity on the Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei route on August 15 and added a third daily flight to Medan on September 15. The carrier reinstated its Kuala Lumpur-Dubai service in August, and is launching new destinations Kochi and Darwin in September and November respectively.

In a recent release, MAS said it had seen a steady increase in passenger traffic since the start of 2013 matching the added capacity. Seat loads have also improved, registering 83.3 per cent in July 2013, a 9.1 percentage point increase from last year.

-TTG Asia.