Malindo to ply 2 new routes

PETALING JAYA: Malindo Air, after six months in operation and with nearly a dozen routes on its network, will begin plying the Jakarta and Bali routes next month.

It will be its maiden entry into Indonesia and will give Malaysians more connectivity to Jakarta and Bali, while Indonesians will get a new gateway into KL International Airport (KLIA) and the rest of the world.

This was also the plan when the hybrid airline, which offers premium amenities at budget prices, was set up, i.e., to give Indonesians a new transit hub via KLIA to the world. Lion Air now also has a new option of ferrying its passengers from all over Indonesia to KLIA and beyond via Malindo.

Malindo is 49% owned by PT Lion Grup, which owns Indonesia’s biggest domestic carrier, Lion Air. The balance 51% of Malindo is held by a Malaysian investor.

Malindo said it would fly daily from Kuala Lumpur to Jakarta beginning Sept 23 and from KL to Bali from Sept 26. The all-inclusive fares for the routes will start from RM159 to Jakarta and RM199 to Bali.

“Their entry into the KL-Jakarta and KL-Bali routes would put pressure on other airlines to dump fares, but bodes well for travellers. We are already seeing fares falling on some of the routes that Malindo is currently plying,” an expert said.

“Fares have dropped on the KL-Kota Kinabalu and KL-Kuching routes and also the KL-Dhaka route, and all this is because of competition,” the expert said.

Malindo chief executive officer Chandran Rama Muthy said in a statement that the flights were the latest addition to Malindo’s long-term plan to convert KLIA into a regional gateway, as the services between KL-Jakarta and KL-Bali would allow convenient connectivity for passengers on the Dhaka-KL service.

Malindo’s new Jakarta and Bali services further reinforce Kuala Lumpur’s position as an important Asian gateway. The airline will use the Boeing 737-900ER aircraft for the connectivity. Malindo currently plies 11 destinations via two hubs, KLIA and Subang Skypark. It plans to fly to 20 destinations by the year-end.

-thestar online.