Malindo Air Aims To Make Ipoh Catalyst For Growth Of New Flights

IPOH, Oct 3 (Bernama) -- Hybrid airline, Malindo Air, aims to make Ipoh as catalyst for the growth of its new domestic and regional flights.

Chief executive officer, Chandran Rama Muthy, said Ipoh represented a potential market for growth. "The first flight from Subang to Ipoh today was nearly full and this indicated that Ipoh offered potential for growth," he said.

He said this at a ceremony to welcome the flight by Perak Menteri Besar, Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir, at Sultan Azlan Shah Airport here today. Also present was state chairman of Tourism, Arts and Culture Comittee, Datuk Nolee Ashilin Mohamed Radzi.

Chandran said Malindo Air would launch its Johor Baharu-Ipoh and Ipoh-Medan (Indonesia) flights on Oct 17, 2014. "The airline will also study the possibility of Ipoh-Langkawi and Ipoh-Krabi (Thailand) flights," he said. He said the airline hoped to launch its Ipoh-Singapore flights using a Boeing.

Chandran said he agreed with Zambry's view that Malindo Air offered flights from Ipoh to Indochina and China considering that Ipoh has received encouraging requests from tourists.

Earlier, Zambry said Malindo Air's flights would help develop the state's tourism sector. "Many companies have indicated their intentions to offer air services to Ipoh," he said.

He said the federal government has agreed in principle to the state's plan to upgrade Gerik's airport with an allocation of RM15 million. "However, we are studying whether the allocation would meet the objective or to have a new area in Hulu Perak for an airport to accommodate small aircraft," he said.

Zambry said Hulu Perak district has quality tourism offerings like the Royal Belum and Unesco world heritage site in Lembah Lenggong.
-bernama.