MAS expects 15% hike in load factor growth

JAKARTA (JP): Malaysia Airlines (MAS) expects a 15 percent increase in its Jakarta-Kuala Lumpur load factor this year because of an improvement in trade relations, an airline executive said yesterday.

The airline's area manager in Indonesia, Adrian Sen, said there were favorable load factors on its Indonesia routes.

Besides Jakarta MAS flies to six other Indonesian cities. They are Medan, Pontianak, Tarakan, Denpasar, Surabaya and Unjungpandang.

"MAS serves the Kuala Lumpur-Jakarta route 14 times a week. Last year, the average load factor reached 80 percent for the morning service and 65 percent for the evening service," he said at a party commemorating MAS's 50th anniversary yesterday.

MAS competes with Indonesia's flag carrier Garuda Indonesia, British Airways, Germany's Lufthansa, and Malaysia's Asia Air, which has just started flying to Indonesia.

Sen said that to commemorate MAS's 50th anniversary, which was celebrated in its 115 destinations worldwide, the airline received its first Boeing B-777-200, a twin-engine, long-haul jet yesterday from American aviation giant, Boeing.

Last month Boeing announced that MAS planned to order up to 15 of the jets.

MAS's first B-777-200 jet broke a world record for the longest nonstop flight, from Seattle to Kuala Lumpur. (icn)