Berjaya Air to fly to Pangkor and Langkawi

PETALING JAYA: Berjaya Air, a niche player that offers commercial flights to island destinations, will reinstate its flights to Pangkor Island today and add Langkawi as its new destination tomorrow, sources said.

The airline, owned by Berjaya Land Bhd, which in turn is a unit of Berjaya Corporation, stopped plying the Subang-Pangkor-Subang route May last year for unknown reasons. Currently, the airline offers flights from Subang to the islands of Tioman, Redang and Koh Samui, and from Singapore's budget terminal to Tioman and Redang islands.

Berjaya Air, formerly known as Pacific Air Charter, was incorporated on Aug 15, 1989 and for many years was offering air charter services before it entered the commercial domain.In June this year it entered into a joint venture with Indonesia's PT Lion Air Mentari, the parent of Lion Air, to transform itself into a low cost carrier operating B737-900ERs and ATR 72-500s. This would have changed a lot of things for Berjaya Air but reports from Indonesia claimed that the deal had been called off.

Whether Berjaya Air will seek out other partners to become a bigger player, given the fact that many experts acknowledge that the local market has room for another big player, remains to be seen. “It may just opt to explore opening new island routes for the time being,'' sources said.
Berjaya operates three Dash and two ATR72 aircraft which can seat about 48 and 72 passengers respectively. It has an option to buy two more ATR72, but has yet to exercise it.

Berjaya Air may just opt to explore opening new island routes for the time being. For Pangkor and Langkawi, it is offering return air fares less tax of RM200 and RM260 respectively. It will fly three and four times weekly to Pangkor and Langkawi respectively.
-thestar online.