Business

Wednesday September 16, 2009

MASwings sees more passengers


SIBU: MASwings, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Malaysia Airlines, is confident of a bigger passenger load in Sabah and Sarawak soon.

Since taking over the Rural Air Service in the two states on an exclusive basis in October 2007, it has been flying progressively increasing numbers.

“As at February, we have flown one million passengers after just 17 months of operation. We are now flying more than 70,000 passengers a month compared with 40,000 to 50,000 previously,” MASwings managing director Mohd Salleh Ahmad Tabrani told a briefing here on Monday.

He said in the last six months, MASwings had registered a 24% passenger growth.

“Despite the economic problems, there is still a very strong appetite for air travel in Sabah and Sarawak,” Mohd Salleh said.

He said MASwings had also achieved significant revenue from handling seven customer foreign airlines like Royal Brunei, Cathay Pacific, Korean Airlines and Japan Airlines at the Kota Kinabalu and Kuching international airports.

“We are ploughing this revenue back in subsidising our less profitable routes,” he said.

MASwings now operates 800 flights a week or 41,600 annually. Its network covers some 22 destinations, of which 16 are in Sarawak, four in Sabah and one in Labuan.

MASwings’ current fleet consists of 15 turboprop aircrafts serving 26 routes in Sarawak, four in Sabah and eight between Sabah and Sarawak.

“We are undertaking a major fleet renewal programme. We have five ATR 72-500 aircraft, six Fokker 50 and four Twin Otters. We made a major investment of RM700mil to acquire the ATR.

“We will be adding another five ATR by April. By then we will be ready to phase out the Fokker 50,” Salleh said. — Bernama


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