Malaysia Airlines to increase capacity in India by 40%

Malaysia Airlines plans to increase capacity on its India services by approximately 40% next year, due to growing business and leisure demand (Business Times Malaysia, 28-Sep-2010). As part of its fleet renewal programme, the carrier plans to deploy new Airbus aircraft on Delhi and Chennai routes, while a B777 will be deployed on Mumbai services and a B737 on Hyderabad and Bangalore services. MAS also plans to increase frequencies on the India routes. MAS has a load factor of 85% for South Asian destinations at present.

Malaysia Airlines: "South Asia is now looking to Southeast Asia and Malaysian destinations like Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Langkawi for both tourism and trade. With the expansion of our fleet of aircraft for the Indian sector, we expect to fly in more travellers to Malaysia as we continue to promote the leisure and meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions sector," Azahar Hamid, Regional Manager, South Asia. Source: Business Times Malaysia, 28-Sep-2010.