Malaysia Airlines

MASwings, Malaysia Airlines’ regional wholly owned subsidiary, which operates services within Malaysian Borneo has added a second link into the World UNESCO site of Mulu National Park.

Travellers to the famous caves now can opt to access the site from Kuching as well as Miri, with services on Tuesday, Friday and Sunday in a Fokker 50.

MASwings launched the inaugural service this week in a 68-seat ATR72-400, as this is the aircraft which the carrier intends to eventually utilize on the route, to come into effect before April next year.

“Kuching being the main gateway to Sarawak plays a significant role in connecting tourists to the various destinations in Sarawak.  Nowadays, travellers expect easy access to their final holiday destinations, with minimum hassle and minimum flying hours,”

said Mohd Salleh Ahmad Tabrani, MASwings Managing Director.

Mulu

“Mulu is one of the best ecotourism locations in Malaysia, and is also one of the most visited tourism destinations in the state of Sarawak, we in MASwings have decided to revive these services.”

e-Travel Blackboard understands that before 2011 end, MASwings aims to operate two daily services from Miri, one daily service from Kuching and one daily service from Kota Kinabalu.  All 28 services will be undertaken by the new ATR-72s.

“The tourism industry unlike many industries has many components, the hotel industry, transport industry, airline industry and many other industries.  Because there are so many components one cannot succeed without the others,”

adds Michael Manyin, Sarawak Tourism Minister.

“Even if we have a five-star hotel here in Mulu, but no air connectivity, this five-star hotel will never succeed.”

MASwings intends to double its ATR72 fleet from five to ten in the next seven months as it looks to retire its Fokker 50 fleet.

Its ATR72 fleet seating 68 in a two class configuration means that seats have a slightly wider pitch.  And at 31″, is definitely a step up from a typical ATR seat.  The new planes feature leather seats in both Economy and Business with both flown in a 2-2 formation.

Source: eTravelBlackboard

MASwings is open to operating flights within Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines-East Asean Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA), its managing director Mohd Salleh Ahmad Tabrani said Tuesday.

“The matter will be discussed if there are instructions from the Transport Ministry to operate routes between Sabah, Sarawak, Brunei, Indonesia and the Philippines,” he added.

Earlier, Mohd Salleh said that MASwings’ remaining eight Fokker 50 aircraft would be replaced by 10 ATR 72-500 planes by April next year.

At present, four of the ATR 72-500 aircraft made in Toulouse, France are already operational, servicing routes within and between Sabah and Sarawak.

“We are expecting our fifth craft to be delivered some time at the end of August or in early September. The sixth will be delivered at the end of September and the seventh by December.

“The three remaining aircraft are expected to arrive in February and March next year and we will complete our fleet of 15 turboprop aircraft by April,” he said at a media briefing on MASwings’ current development here.

The other four aircraft still in operation with MASWings are the Twin Otter model. Another Twin Otter will be delivered by April next year.

According to Mohd Salleh, the Fokker 50 aircraft were no longer viable in servicing MASwings’ 38 routes in the two states, which includes rural destinations.

The maintenance cost for the aircraft is also high, he added.

“MASwings is the largest unit of Malaysia Airlines’ Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme. We have been entrusted by the government to also service routes in the rural areas.

“That is why we are offering the lowest fares to our passengers to ensure everyone can afford to fly to destinations where most other airlines do not,” he said.

On an average, Mohd Salleh said MASwings was offering fares from as low as RM59.

On top of that, he said the company’s On-Time Performance was at a 92 percent record for 2008 and to date.

Since its launch in October 2007, Mohd Salleh said MASwings had flown more than 60,000 passengers a month on average and operated approximately 700 flights a week.

Source: Bernama