MASwings Monthly Passenger Load Increases To 80,000

MIRI, June 24 (Bernama) -- The number of passengers carried by MASwings, a Malaysia Airlines subsidiary operating in Sabah and Sarawak, has doubled since it commenced operations in 2007. Its Managing Director, Datuk Mohd Salleh Ahmad Tabrani said today the airline has flown a monthly average of 80,000 passengers as compared to about 40,000 when it first started. "This (the load increase) has been made possible through the fleet renewal programme that MASwings and MAS undertook," he said at a news conference after MAS Managing Director Tengku Datuk Azmil Zahruddin launched the new MASwings office here.

Mohd Salleh said under the fleet renewal programme, eight ageing Fokker F50 used in the initial operations were phased out and replaced by 10 ATR 72-500 aircraft. Following the acquisition of the new aircraft, he said the weekly frequencies of flights performed, had also increased from 450 to 950. MAswings, he disclosed, was also awaiting approval from the Transport Ministry for another DHC Twin-Otter aircraft to be added to its current fleet in meeting the growing demand for the Rural Air Service (RAS) here.

He said the airline currently had four such aircraft serving several airports in the northern region of the state. "We are hopeful, in the later part of this year or even next year, we can get the approval for the fifth Twin-Otter," he added. Mohd Salleh said the newly-launched MASwings office was also equipped with a facility to enable Twin-Otter pilots to undergo computer-based training for the aircraft. This was previously available only at Subang Airport, Selangor. "This (the availability of training facility) saves us a lot of time and cost in continuously training and updating our Twin-Otter pilots," he added.