Indonesia agrees to allow MAS add more flights

Indonesia agrees to allow MAS add more flights

Reuters, Kuala Lumpur

Indonesia has agreed to allow Malaysian state carrier Malaysian Airline System (MAS) to add more services to four Indonesian cities, a Malaysian minister said on Thursday.

Transport Minister Ling Liong Sik was quoted by the official Bernama news agency as saying that MAS would raise the number of its flights to Denpasar, Jakarta, Medan and Surabaya from March 2002.

The move was agreed at a two-day meeting between Malaysian and Indonesian civil aviation authorities in Kuala Lumpur that ended on Wednesday.

Ling said from March, MAS would operate three Airbus A330 flights a day each to Jakarta and Medan from Kuala Lumpur from two flights currently.

The Kuala Lumpur-Jakarta route will be eventually increased to four times a day to cope with the growing demand by business travelers, he said.

Ling said Kuala Lumpur-Denpasar and Kuala Lumpur-Surabaya flights would be increased to twice a day from one currently. The flights will also use Airbus planes.

"It is being done as part of MAS' rationalization program which includes concentration on regional routes," he said.

MAS recently unveiled plans to discontinue flights to 12 destinations, cut jobs and sell assets to tackle an industry-wide crisis following the September 11 attacks on the United States.

MAS shares closed three cents down at 1.90 ringgit on Thursday.