Malaysian Airlines increases services

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)