MALAYSIA: Malindo Goes To Adelaide

Malindo Air has made Adelaide (ADL), destination for this year’s World Routes, its fourth Australian gateway, launching a four times weekly service from Kuala Lumpur (KUL) via Denpasar (DPS) to the city.

The carrier is already present in Australia with flights to Perth, Melbourne and Brisbane. Launched 16 April from Kuala Lumpur, the carrier will serve the tri-city route using its fleet of 737-800s.

Competition on the 5,688-kilometre connection between Kuala Lumpur and Adelaide comes from Malaysia Airlines. The oneworld member already serves the airport pair five times weekly using its fleet of A330-300s.

The 3,764-kilometre sector between Denpasar and Adelaide is also served by another operator, with Jetstar Airways offering a daily rotation between the two destinations at present.

Malindo Air has added a fourth destination in Australia following the arrival of the Malaysia-based carrier’s inaugural service to Adelaide.

Flight OD173, operated by Boeing 737-800 9M-LCD, touched down in Adelaide a little after 0600 local time Wednesday morning and was greeted by an Airservices Aviation Rescue and Fire Fighting (ARFF) monitor cross as it taxied to the terminal building.

The aircraft was on the ground for about two hours before operating the reciprocal OD174 to Denpasar (Bali), following some celebrations at the boarding gate. The flight then continues onward to Kuala Lumpur.

Malindo Air chief executive Chandran Rama Muthy, who was on the inaugural flight into Adelaide, said there had been a good response to the service since ticket sales began three weeks ago.

“I see the demand as solid from Adelaide to Bali and Kuala Lumpur,” Muthy told Australian Aviation in an interview on Wednesday.

“The Australian market is really good for us. We use Bali as our intermediate hub before flying into Kuala Lumpur, mainly because our aircraft needs refuelling.”

“We found that Bali is another good destination for Australians so why not use Bali as a transit hub.”

Further, the Adelaide route also offered good connections from Kuala Lumpur to Malindo’s Asian network, which stretches north to Japan and west to countries such as India and Sri Lanka.

“We have a great range of connecting destinations from Kuala Lumpur and also from Bali,” Muthy said.

“From Kuala Lumpur you can connect to about 57 destinations.”

Adelaide Airport managing director Mark Young the airport was excited to have Malindo Air at Adelaide.

“Malindo Air will also be the first carrier since 2016 to offer a Business Class product directly between Adelaide and Bali,” Young said in a statement.

“This service provides South Australian passengers with more choice when heading to two of our most popular destinations, and also creates opportunities to attract South East Asian visitors to our city and local attractions.”

Malindo Air will operate four Kuala Lumpur-Denpasar-Adelaide flights a week with a mix of 737-800s and 737-900s featuring business and economy class seats.

Currently, Malaysia Airlines offers nonstop flights between Adelaide and Kuala Lumpur, while Qantas’s low-cost carrier (LCC) Jetstar is on the Adelaide-Denpasar route.

Malindo Air, which is part of Indonesia’s Lion Air group of carriers, started serving Australia in November 2015 when it began nonstop flights from Kuala Lumpur to Perth.

It added Kuala Lumpur-Denpasar-Brisbane and Kuala Lumpur-Denpasar-Melbourne services in March 2017 and June 2018, respectively.

All routes are served with either Boeing 737-800 or 737-900s in a two-class configuration. The airline has fifth freedom traffic rights for all it one-stop flights from Kuala Lumpur to Australia via Denpasar.

Muthy said he hoped to start flights between Kuala Lumpur and Sydney, again via Denpasar, in the second half of the year.

“We are still waiting for one final regulatory approval from the Malaysian civil aviation authority,” Muthy said. “Once that is sorted out, then we will announce the date and start operating the flight.”

“Hopefully we can catch the June school holidays. That would be great. We’ll see how it goes.”

As aviation thinktank CAPA – Centre for Aviation noted in a recent research report, Malindo is utilising the available capacity to serve Australia from Bali under the Indonesia-Malaysia air services agreement.

The bilateral allows Malaysian carriers to operate a maximum of 28 flights a week between Bali and Australia, and a maximum of seven frequencies per Australian destination.

Should Sydney launch with a daily service, that would mean Malindo would operate a total of 22 of the 28 available weekly Bali-Australia flights – four flights a week to Adelaide and Brisbane, as well daily services to Melbourne and Sydney – leaving only six frequencies for other airlines.

CAPA chief analyst Brendan Sobie said the expansion of Malindo in this part of the world has led to an intensifying of competition in the Australia-Bali market.

“Bali remains a popular and growing destination for Australians. As competition intensifies the fares will likely come down, stimulating further demand,” Sobie said in his March 19 2019 research note.

Jetstar could drive a new phase of growth as it starts to take delivery of A321neoLRs, some of which are earmarked for Australia-Bali routes, in 2020.

“The return of AirAsia X could have an even bigger impact, but bilateral constraints will need to be resolved.”

Muthy said Malindo would remain a narrowbody operator for the foreseeable future.

“I’m quite concerned to expand into widebody because the cost of operations is totally different than narrowbody,” Muthy said.

“We don’t want to take the risk of competing head to head with the national carrier and also the other carrier, fighting for market share.”


Tourism Observer

AUSTRALIA: Malindo Air Crew Arrested After Smuggling $21m Worth Of Drugs

Police have busted an international drug syndicate that they allege has been using airline cabin crew on board flights from Malaysia to smuggle drugs into Australia over a number of years.

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) and Victoria Police have arrested eight people in the past 10 days who they allege brought heroin, methamphetamine and cocaine worth $21 million into Australia.

Assistant Commissioner Tess Walsh from Victoria Police said the arrests occurred as part of Operation Sunrise, which involved the AFP, Australian Border Force and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission.

The joint investigative team has alleged that the syndicate used cabin crews at Malindo Air, a small airline based in Malaysia, to bring the drugs into the country.

Investigators allege the drugs were brought in via Melbourne and Sydney, carried on the bodies of the cabin crew.

One defendant allegedly told investigators it was his 20th trip into Australia.

Operation Sunrise is a complex, five-month operation targeting an alleged Vietnamese organised crime syndicate based in Melbourne, Assistant Commissioner Walsh said.

Assistant Commissioner Walsh said police believed the syndicate had been operating for at least five years and that the drugs seized so far were clearly not the total amount of drugs alleged to have been imported.

This is a significant seizure but I think reality would say that it's not the total amount of drugs that this team have brought into this country, she said.

Intelligence would tell us that this crew has been operating for some years, I would say five plus I don't know whether or not it's decades.

Those arrested by police include a 38-year-old woman arrested on January 7 in Tullamarine, and another six people arrested in raids at Sunshine North and inner-city Melbourne a day later.

On January 14, a woman from Richmond was also arrested.

Two of the defendants were Vietnamese-born Australians.

Six kilograms of heroin were seized, as well as 8kg of methamphetamine and half a kilo of cocaine.

Luxury cars, $100,000 in cash and drug paraphernalia were also seized.

Assistant Commissioner Walsh said the investigation was active and ongoing.

Malindo Air's website describes it as a premium airline with headquarters in Petaling Jaya, a town just outside of Kuala Lumpur.

In a statement, Malindo Air it was aware that one of its cabin crew had been arrested on arrival at Melbourne Airport on January 7.

While the airline said it had not had any official communication with its staff member or the AFP over the crew member's detention, the person had been suspended with immediate effect.

It said none of the other Malindo Air crew on the flight were detained.

Malindo Air stands ready to co-operate with all the relevant authorities be it in Australia or in Malaysia in this regard, the airline said.

Given all that we know to date and based on the findings of our internal investigations, we are confident that this arrest appears to be an isolated incident arising out of a crew's misconduct.


Tourism Observer

INDONESIA: Garuda Indonesia Is A Leading Airline , Denpensar The Leading Airport In Asia

Denpasar is the main international airport on the Indonesian island of Bali.

It was the second largest Indonesian airport based on total departing capacity in 2017.

Denpasar was the fourth busiest Indonesian airport for departing domestic seats last year and the second largest for international capacity.

The available two-way seats on flights serving Denpasar grew from 10.63 million in 2008 to 29.18 million in 2017, representing a substantial 174% increase.

Between 2009 and 2017 the airport experienced double-digit, year-on-year growth on six occasions.

The single largest annual increase came in 2010, with available seat numbers boosted by nearly 20% over 2009 levels. Since 2008, Denpasar has only witnessed one annual capacity contraction.

This took place in 2015, and the cuts were marginal at less than one percent. From 2010 to 2017 available capacity to and from the Balinese airport more than doubled, increasing by 108%.

Denpasar has seen a relatively even split between capacity offered on domestic and international services over the past 10 years.

In 2008 there were 5.43 million two-way seats available on domestic services. By 2017 this had grown to 14.65 million, which is equivalent to a 170% increase.

Over the same period, international capacity increased by 174% from 5.20 million seats to 14.53 million. Domestic seats accounted for 51% of the airport’s two-way capacity in 2008 and around 50% in 2017.

Indonesian-based carriers accounted for nine of the top 12 airlines at Denpasar in 2017, based on annual departing seats.

This included the four largest airlines, and eight of the top 10. National flag carrier Garuda Indonesia was the biggest single capacity provider, with more than three million departing seats, 21% of the airport’s total.

Garuda will offer 323 flights from Denpasar across 29 destinations during the week commencing 15 May, with between 45 and 47 daily departures.

Jetstar Airways was the largest international carrier in 2017.

During the week commencing 15 May it will serve eight destinations from Denpasar with the highest frequency link being Perth, which it operates three times daily.

Most of the top 12 airlines expanded their capacity from Denpasar last year. The strongest growth came from Batik Air 620% increase and NAM Air 207%.

Batik Air was a new entrant to the top 12 in 2017 increasing the number of one-way seats on offer from Denpasar from 65,000 in 2016, to 468,000 last year.

The Indonesian airline more than trebled its domestic capacity in 2017 and introduced international services to Perth and Kuala Lumpur.

Two of the top-ranked airlines cut capacity from the Bali facility last year. The largest reduction came from Indonesia AirAsia, with the LCC removing 5.4% of its seats compared to 2016.

Half of the top 12 routes from Denpasar in 2017 were domestic services. This included its biggest single link to Jakarta.

There were 3.21 million one-way seats available on the capital city connection, representing 22% of the airport’s total capacity.

Six airlines will offer 232 combined flights from Denpasar to Jakarta during the week commencing 15 May.

Three of the top-ranked routes last year were international services, with Singapore the largest of these. The biggest international country market was Australia, with nine links and 1.74 million seats available.

The largest country market outside of Asia Pacific was Qatar, which finished in seventh place.

Denpasar’s top two routes remained unchanged in 2017, with the majority of the top-ranked routes witnessing a year-on-year capacity boost comapred to 2016.

The largest increases came on services to Kuala Lumpur 60% increase over 2016 , Jakarta 24% and Doha (23%).

The Kuala Lumpur link experienced growth from existing operators, plus the introduction of services by Batik Air and AirAsia X.

The Malaysian destination subsequently overtook Surabaya to become the third largest route from Denpasar.

Three connections witnessed a year-on-year decline in seat numbers. The largest cuts came on domestic services to Surabaya 16% reduction. Melbourne dropped out of the top 12 and was replaced by Doha.

One new route has already launched to Denpasar in 2018 and that at least three more are scheduled to begin.

These include Qantas and Malindo Air introducing services to Melbourne, and Emirates adding a link to Auckland. All three services are due to commence in June.


Tourism Observer

USA: Norwegian’s First 737 MAX Delivery Postponed

Boeing has postponed the delivery to Norwegian Air Shuttle of its first 737 MAX 8, originally set on June 13. This is the third delay experienced by the low-cost carrier, which was expecting to receive its first MAX in late May.

While the reasons behind the decision were not disclosed, the initial delivery date was postponed due to quality control issues found on the CFM International LEAP-1B engines earlier this month.

These issues halted the flights of its 737 MAX fleet during three days, slipping by one day the delivery to Malindo Air, which took place on May 19.

Norwegian’s inaugural 737 MAX flight was supposed to take place on June 15th from Edinburgh to Stewart International Airport in New York. However, the new delivery date has now been set “to the end of June.” The inaugural flight and initial flights between Edinburgh and Stewart originally planned to be operated by the MAX, will be now be served with a Boeing 737-800.

The ETOPS 737-800s will be limited to a payload capacity of 150 passengers, below the 189 passenger capacity of the MAX. According to Norwegian, none of the initial flights have been booked over 150 passengers, so no there’s no raccommodation of passengers.

In a statement, Norwegian said ““Boeing has informed us that the delivery of our first 737 MAX is postponed until the end of June. This will not affect our operation or our passengers, as the upcoming launch of transatlantic routes between the U.S. East Coast and Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Norway will be operated by another aircraft type.”

Boeing later issued its own statement, “On occasion delivery processes runs into minor issues – whether for maintenance or other reasons. In this case, we and our customer decided to reschedule this delivery in order to resolve a minor technical issue. We fully expect to deliver later this month and look forward to the MAX entering revenue service with Norwegian.”

Norwegian plans to receive six 737 MAX 8 in 2017. Of these, four will be based in Stewart and two in T.F. Green Airport in Rhode Island.

The main celebrations will be at Stewart on the 15th and Providence on the 16th as it kicks off several new routes from these two airports. The new routes of the long-haul low-cost European carrier from Providence to Belfast, Cork, Dublin, Edinburgh and Shannon are the first-ever year-round European routes for Rhode Island’s largest airport.

From Stewart, Norwegian will be the first carrier to provide European service with four routes to Belfast, Dublin, Edinburgh and Shannon.

Norwegian will also operate one route from Bradley, New England’s second largest airport, to Edinburgh.

Norwegian also has more than 20 Dreamliners on order, which will be used to fuel the carrier’s expansion to main US cities. London flights from Denver and Seattle will begin in September, and flights to Rome from Los Angeles and Newark will start in November. Flights from Oakland to Rome will start in February 2018.

As these Dreamliners join the fleet, Norwegian is considering new European destinations from the USA. Madrid, Amsterdam and a German city like Dusseldorf, Munich or Berlin, and has plans for seasonal services to Budapest and Prague.

The European expansion from the United States does not end there. Norwegian believes that the 737 MAX and the Airbus A321LR open up a plethora of new opportunities and destinations, enabling the airline to launch unserved routes that would not be profitable with the Dreamliner, but suitable for a narrowbody.

Norwegian is seeking to deploy its MAX fleet to Nice, Lyon and other cities in France from the northeastern U.S.

Next week, Norwegian will start serving Barcelona from the United States. According to the airline, booking has been “really good.” Paris and London have also been performing well, with booking well over 90%.

INDONESIA: Lion Group To Expand Internationally

Indonesia’s Lion Group is preparing to build up its presence in the international market after focusing almost entirely on domestic operations in its initial 15 years. Lion is the largest domestic airline group outside China and the US, but has a small international operation that is only about the size of Poland’s LOT.

In a precursor to international expansion, the group has been raising its standards and seeking IOSA certification for all five airlines in its portfolio. Its Indonesian subsidiaries are also now in the process of securing an exemption from the EU blacklist.

IOSA certification and EASA approval should make it easier for the airlines under the Lion Group to secure approval from civil aviation authorities in several countries. It should also strengthen the Lion brand overseas and facilitate new codeshare partnerships.

Lion is one of the world’s 15 largest airline groups based on current seat capacity. The Lion Group currently has more than 1.7 million weekly seats, making it the largest in Southeast East – ahead of AirAsia’s approximately 1.4 million weekly seats.

Approximately 93% of Lion Group’s seat capacity is now domestic.

However, Lion has a larger concentration of domestic capacity than any of the other top 15 airline groups except Southwest Airlines. Approximately 93% of Lion Group’s seat capacity is now domestic, according to CAPA and OAG data.

In comparison, Lion’s arch-rival AirAsia allocates approximately 50% of its current seat capacity to the international market. Lion currently has approximately 125,000 weekly international seats compared with more than 700,000 for AirAsia (including AirAsia X).

Lion is more than double the size of AirAsia in domestic markets with approximately 1.6 million weekly seats, compared with approximately 700,000 for AirAsia. Globally only seven airlines, the four main US airline groups and the three main Chinese airline groups, have more domestic capacity than Lion.

Lion has started growing its international operation.

Lion’s international capacity has been increasing in recent years, but from a very low base. In 2015 the group’s annual international capacity was up nearly 20% compared with 2014, and was more than double the 2012 levels.

Lion Group’s current weekly seat capacity is up nearly 60% year-over-year compared with Apr-2015, when the group had approximately 80,000 weekly international seats. Compared with Apr-2014 it has doubled.

Nearly all of the group’s international expansion over the last couple of years has been generated by Malaysian Malindo Air. Currently Malindo has approximately 60,000 weekly international seats, while the rest of the group has approximately 65,000 weekly international seats. Malindo’s current international weekly seat capacity is nearly 60% above Apr-2015 levels and is more than three times the Apr-2014 levels.

Lion Group plans international expansion in 2016.

Malindo commenced operations in Mar-2013 and has been focusing its expansion almost entirely on the international market over the last two years, after an initial phase focused on the domestic market. Malindo currently operates 21 international routes, nine of which have been launched over the last year, and is planning further ambitious international expansion in 2H2016.

The rest of the group currently operates only 10 scheduled international routes. This includes eight for Lion Air, one for Thai Lion and one for the Indonesian full service subsidiary Batik Air. The group’s fifth airline, Wings Air, is a regional operator in Indonesia and only serves the domestic market.

Batik, Lion and Thai Lion are all planning international expansion in 2016. Thai Lion has the most aggressive plan, aiming to launch several international routes within Southeast Asia and to China over the next few months. Thai Lion commenced operations in Dec-2013 and focused in its initial phase on the Thai domestic market, where it has quickly built up a presence that is already almost as large as the long-established LCCs Nok Air and Thai AirAsia.

In Indonesia, the Lion Group strategy is generally to use the full service subsidiary Batik to expand in the international market. Batik launched its first international route, Jakarta-Singapore, in Aug-2015 and has Perth in its business plan for 2016. It is planning to accelerate international expansion in 2017 as it takes delivery of new longer-range A321neos.

The Lion Group clearly faces challenges in establishing a significant international presence. The group and its various airlines do not have known brands outside their home markets, and the group's reputation overseas has also been far from stellar.

Lion Group has been gradually working to raise its standards and improve its reputation. An initiative to certify all of its airlines under the IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) began in 2014, following the establishment of a new corporate safety and quality team.

Thai Lion became the first airline to pass an IOSA audit in Sep-2015. Thai Lion was selected as the first Lion Group airline to go through the stringent IOSA process as it is the newest member of the group and was therefore the easiest at which to implement change.

The other four airlines are now in various stages of the IOSA certification process. Batik and Malindo are expected to be added to the IOSA registry within the next couple of months, followed by Lion Air in Jul-2016 and Wings Air in Sep-2016.

IOSA certification is a key milestone in Lion Group’s initiative to establish itself internationally, for several reasons.

From a regulatory standpoint, IOSA certification can make it easier to secure approvals from various authorities. For example, Batik is now in the process of seeking approval from Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority.

No Lion Group airline currently has any codeshares with airlines outside the group
IOSA certification is also often a requirement for codeshare agreements with other airlines. No Lion Group airline currently has any codeshares with airlines outside the group.

However Malindo is now actively seeking to partner with several foreign airlines serving Malaysia, as part of its new full service airline strategy. Over the next couple of years other Lion Group members are also expected to start exploring partnerships with airlines outside the group.

IOSA certification is also a benefit because some corporates have policies requiring employees to fly with airlines on the IOSA registry. In addition, individual consumers often opt for IOSA certified airlines. As a result, IOSA can help Lion attract more international passengers and operate international routes that may only be viable with a heavy concentration of inbound traffic.

Lion Air could be removed from EU blacklist
An exemption from the EU blacklist will further aid Lion’s international efforts, since some authorities – and some corporates – follow EASA more closely than IOSA. Removal from the blacklist would also clearly help from a consumer standpoint.

Lion found itself blacklisted through no fault of its own. EASA automatically put all Indonesian airlines on its blacklist several years ago when it determined that Indonesian authorities did not meet its standards. Airlines are able to be removed individually after applying for an exemption and undergoing a rigorous process. For example, AirAsia Indonesia and Garuda Indonesia are currently exempt from the EU blacklist after following this process.

In Nov-2015 Batik, Lion, and the Garuda budget subsidiary Citilink applied for removal from the EU blacklist. A review by EASA is now under way, with a decision on all three airlines expected in Jun-2016.

If the Batik and Lion applications are successful, the Lion Group also plans to begin the process of seeking an exemption for Wings Air.

Lion seeks to raise its international profile as its 500 aircraft orders are delivered.

The certification work under IOSA and EASA is part of a wider initiative to raise standards, which should in turn help Lion boost its international profile.

The group is also now seeking EASA approval for its maintenance facility in Batam, which is expected to be secured within the next couple of months. Lion is also now seeking FAA approval for heavy airframe checks, which will facilitate efforts to start pursuing maintenance contracts with third party customers.

Separate projects are under way to improve several other areas of the operation, including on-time performance. Only approximately 80% of Lion Air flights are on time. Batik has had a much more reliable operation since launching, with an average on-time performance of nearly 99%, as have Malindo and Thai Lion.

Lion strategically needs a much larger international presence
The Lion Group clearly recognises that it needs to raise its standards if it is to succeed at improving its brand overseas and expanding internationally. Lion strategically needs a much larger international presence as it takes delivery of the approximately 500 aircraft it has on order.

There are huge challenges to overcome, but there is also huge potential for the Lion Group in the international market.

SRI LANKA: Malindo Air Launched Daily Service From Kuala Lumpur To Colombo

Malindo Air launched a daily service from Kuala Lumpur to Colombo on last 18th December 2015 expanding and strengthening their operations in Sri Lanka. Malindo Air is a Malaysian airline with headquarters in Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia. The airline is the result of a joint venture between National Aerospace and Defense Industries (NADI) of Malaysia and Lion Air of Indonesia.

The name Malindo signifies a cooperative pact between the two countries, derived from the countries’ names – Malaysia and Indonesia. Malindo Air operates from the Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (KLIA2) and the Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport (also known as the Subang Airport, Subang SkyPark or LTSAAS) in Subang, Selangor, Malaysia. Malindo has selected Colombo as an emerging destination and Malindo marks another important milestone of launching this new rout.

Hon. Minister Nimal Siripala De Silva, Minister of Transport, Ms. Madubhani Perera, Director Marketing SLTPB and Ms. Chami Gasnawage, Assistant Director Marketing SLTPB attended the inaugural flight launching ceremony at BIA welcoming the new flight to Sri Lanka. “We expect 15% growth in Malaysian Tourist Arrivals in 2016 which is over 25,000 tourists per year, voiced Ms. Madubhani Perera, Director Marketing – Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau. Jetwing travels is working as the General Sales Agency (GSA) for Malindo Air. Mr. Sunil Pieris, Director Travel Services and Mr. Raju Arasaratnam, Executive Director at Jetwing Travels were also took part at the inauguration ceremony.

“Whilst it’s true that as we continue to expand, we are taking more people on more aircraft to more places, we have to continue our efforts to provide the best service for our customers,” Chief Executive Officer Chandran Rama Muthy said in a statement. He also said that Malindo Air is working very closely with Tourism Malaysia to promote a wide variety of attractions in Sri Lanka.

The carrier operates a network of scheduled passenger services throughout Malaysia, and has spread its wings to regional destinations in Indonesia, Thailand, Bangladesh, India, Singapore, Nepal and Australia, covering an extensive network of over 40 routes in the region.

MALAYSIA: Malindo Air Relocating To Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA)

Malindo Air has announced it will relocate flight operations from Kuala Lumpur's klia2 terminal to the main Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) from next month.

The move will take effect from March 15, and customers are 'urged to make the necessary transportation and meeting point arrangements accordingly,' the airline said.

Malaysia Airports Holdings managing director Datuk Badlisham Ghazali said it is a natural progression for the airline as it has evolved from a hybrid to a full-service airline, adding that KLIA can better support the airline's operations with premium services.

"Malaysia Airports is pleased to facilitate Malindo Air's change in business requirements," Ghazali said.

Ghazali also noted the relocation will streamline transfers for customers arriving into Malaysia on Malindo's codeshare partner airlines.

Malindo also flies ATR turboprop services from the nearby Subang Skypark which will continue unchanged, the carrier said.

MALAYSIA: Malindo Air To Fly Daily To Hong Kong

Malindo Air, airline based in Malaysia, announced expansion of its international network by launching 2016’s second new services from Kuala Lumpur to Hong Kong.

Malindo Air will deploy the narrow-body Boeing 737-800NG aircraft with a seat capacity of 162 with 12 Business Class and 150 Economy Class seats on the flights.

The flight time between Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong will take 3 hrs 55mins.

Malindo Air said the daily services to Hong Kong marked its second destination in China after Sanya in Hainan Province.

The introductory fare for the new route starts from RM299 for Economy Class and RM669 for Business Class one-way all inclusive.

All fares include perks such as free baggage allowance, in-flight entertainment, a meal and light refreshments, Malindo Air said.

Malindo Air Chief Executive Officer, Chandran Rama Muthy, said the airline expected an upsurge in arrivals from Hong Kong with the new service.

“There will be an upsurge of arrivals expected from Hong Kong attributed by the new Malindo Air’s daily services between Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong. With 1,134 seats per week now available, this could amount to about 59,000 Chinese per year from Southern China taking advantage of the new flights to Kuala Lumpur.”

“Hong Kong is a very strategic tourist port, and our expansion to Hong Kong is another effort to further boost Southern China’s outbound leisure and business travel to Malaysia. Tourist arrivals from China by the end of 2015 have shown a very positive result with 1.25 million visitors,” Malindo Air Chief Executive Officer, Chandran Rama Muthy said.

“With Malindo Air’s current network in India, we will provide seamless connectivity, and this will certainly benefit the country as we will enhance KLIA position as a strategic transit point for travelers from India to China via Hong Kong,” he added.

Malindo Air fleet consists of 27 aircraft.

MALAYSIA: Malindo Air

Malindo is a Low Budget Airline. Malindo Air is an airline based in Malaysia, headquartered in Petaling Jaya. It is a joint venture between National Aerospace and Defence Industries (NADI) (51%) of Malaysia and Lion Air of Indonesia (49%). The name "Malindo" is derived from the names of respective countries: Malaysia and Indonesia. Malindo Air initially planned to start operation on 1 May 2013 from the new KLIA2 terminal. However, Malindo Air brought forward the launch date to mid-March 2013 with domestic destinations.

The airline offers only economy class and business class seats.

For its jet routes, Malindo Air provides a personal TV (in-flight entertainment system) in every seat, light snacks and free meal, seat pitches of 32" and 45" for economy class and business class respectively, and free baggage allowances of 20 kg & 30 kg. Furthermore, wifi service will be available from June onwards.

The airline also has expanded on a parallel turboprop service, focusing mainly secondary routes within 2-hour radius from Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport. Pioneer destinations include Penang, Johor Bahru and Kota Bahru.

Guests travelling on board Malindo Air’s Boeing 737-900ER from KLIA will enjoy extra legroom at no additional cost as all seats in economy have a seat pitch of 32”. All seats in economy class are also fitted with In Flight Entertainment system (IFE) that offer guest the latest Asian and Hollywood movie blockbusters, TV Programmes and interactive games to choose from at no additional charge.

Business Class passengers enjoy a seat pitch of 45” between them and each seats fitted with personal 13-inch screen stowed away under their seat rest and complimentary baggage allowance of up to 30kg and a full meal service with every business class ticket purchased.

Economy Class

A meal or snack and non alcoholic beverages are provided complimentary
Seat pitch of 32inch with some recline; seat selection for a small fee
Seat back screens show movies and TV shows on demand on the 737-900
No blankets or pillows
Included baggage allowance of 20kgs

Business Class

Superior meal and beverages are provided complimentary
Seat pitch of 45 inch with recline
Seat back screens show movies and TV shows on demand on the 737-900
No blankets or pillows
Included baggage allowance of 30kgs

Malindo

Destinations MALINDO AIR:
Malaysia

Alor Setar

Johor Bahru

Langkawi

Kuala Lumpur (HUB)

Subang (HUB)

Kuala Terengganu

Kota Bharu

Kota Kinabalu

Kuching

Penang

Sibu

Bangladesh

Dhaka

Chittagong

India

Ahmedabad

Delhi

Mumbai

Tiruchirappalli

Indonesia

Denpasar

Jakarta

Thailand

Bangkok (by Lion Air)

MALAYSIA: Malindo Air arrives in Amritsar

Malindo Air on 25 October began its seventh route to India from its Kuala Lumpur (KUL) base. Amritsar (ATQ) will be served thrice-weekly using the airline’s 737-900s.

The 4,276-kilometre route becomes the airline’s longest and the LCC will not face any direct competition. Amritsar joins Delhi, Kochi, Mumbai, Thiruvananthapuram, Tiruchirapally and Visakhapatnam which are the other Indian cities already served by the carrier.

In all Malindo Air now serves 19 destinations non-stop from Kuala Lumpur. Located in northern India, Amritsar’s airport handled just over one million passengers in the last year, around one quarter of which were travelling on international flights.