Malaysia Airlines new pricing strategy drives higher load factors

Malaysia Airlines CEO Peter Bellew, speaking on CAPA TV, said (15-Nov-2016) the airline's load factor improved by approximately 3.5ppt over the last couple of months. The load factor improvement follows the re-calibration of fares, resulting in a more aggressive pricing strategy where a portion of seats are offered at fares competitive with LCCs. Malaysia Airlines expects to achieve an 80% system-wide average load factor within 18 months, up from below 70% in 1H2016. "There's no point me sitting around with empty seats at the back of the aircraft so we have re-calibrated our fares," Mr Bellew said. "We are see people voting with their feet and booking fares with us. And we are going to continue that process over the next couple of years." [more - CAPA TV]