Malaysian Airlines increases services

JAKARTA (JP): Malaysia Airlines (MAS) tomorrow will start new services which link three cities in Indonesia with Johor Bahru in Malaysia.

The company's area manager for Indonesia, Lim Chen Hoe, told The Jakarta Post yesterday that MAS will operate Boeing 737-400 aircraft in serving the new routes, which comprise of Jakarta- Johor Bahru-Kuala Lumpur, Denpasar-Johor Bahru-Kuala Lumpur and Surabaya-Johor Bahru-Kuala Lumpur.

He said the services are actually an expansion of the routes to Kuala Lumpur.

"We are quite sure the expansion of the routes will increase our load factors from the current 70 percent," he said.

The services with stopovers in Johor Bahru are scheduled every Tuesday and Friday from Jakarta, every Wednesday, Friday and Sunday from Denpasar in Bali and every Monday, Thursday and Saturday from Surabaya in East Java.

"The new services are the outcome of the amendment of the air agreement between Indonesia and Malaysia, signed by officials from the two countries in Solo, Central Java, on June 22," Lim said, adding that the routes are full of potential.

MAS, operating a fleet of 94 aircraft, operates 41 flights from Indonesia (Jakarta, Surabaya, Denpasar and Medan in North Sumatra) to Kuala Lumpur per week, including the eight new routes offering stopovers in Johor Bahru. The airline, which operates mostly two-year old aircraft, also serves other routes linking Tarakan and Pontianak in Kalimantan with several cities in Malaysia.(icn)