Thursday, July 14, 2011

MASwings plans BIMP-EAGA services from October

KOTA KINABALU: If everything goes to plan, MASwings may start introducing its Kota Kinabalu-Bandar Seri Begawan (Brunei) route and Kuching-Pontianak (Indonesia) services in October.

This move will mark the airline’s foray into international operations, in particular the Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East Asean Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) region.

MASwings chairman Tengku Datuk Seri Azmil Zahruddin said the airline was currently awaiting approval from the Transport Ministry.

“The expansion to this region will position MASwings as a truly community airline not only for the people of Sabah and Sarawak, but for the entire community of Borneo and BIMP-EAGA,” he said during the launch of MASwings-Enrich Frequent Flyer partnership programme here today.

MASwings, a fully-owned subsidiary of Malaysia Airlines, currently flies to 22 destinations within Sabah and Sarawak with a total fleet of 10 ATR 72-500 aircraft and four Twin Otter aircraft. It has over 1,300 staff.

Tengku Azmil who is also Malaysia Airlines Managing Director, said the latest move into BIMP-EAGA would transform MASwings into an international player competing with the rest of the other airlines in the same league.

“We are extremely confident of the prospect of our expansion plan to this region with a population close to 60 million and due to the rapid business development there,” he added.

MASwings started in October 2007 with 450 flights per week. Presently, it operates close to 940 flights per week, representing a growth of more than 100 per cent over a three-and-a-half-year period.

“Our current on-time performance is 93.4 per cent, compared to the average on-time performance of 92.9 per cent in 2009 and 93 per cent in 2010.

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