MAS to fly to more Indonesian cities
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Kuala Lumpur-based full-service carrier Malaysia Airlines (MAS) plans to increase its services to more Indonesian destinations in the future in order to tap into the growing demand from the country's business and leisure travellers.
The airline’s regional senior vice president for Malaysia and Asean Muzammil Mohammad said MAS was looking at cities like Semarang, Central Java; Surabaya, East Java; Balikpapan, East Kalimantan; and Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara for the new services.
“They are important points in Indonesia and with a population of 250 million people, Indonesia is a great market. We are looking at the market, and whenever it is feasible, we are going to introduce the new services,” he said on the sidelines of “Celebrating 40 Years of Malaysian Hospitality with You” at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport.
Muzammil said MAS was set to increase the Jakarta–Kuala Lumpur frequency from six to seven flights daily starting from last Saturday. The new frequency was an answer to the strong demand from customers from both nations, especially from businesspeople, he said.
“Jakarta has always been an important point for us since we opened the route 40 years ago, as well as Medan [in North Sumatra] and Denpasar [in Bali],” he added.
The airline currently flies twice a day and three times a day, respectively, to Medan and Denpasar. As the demand to and from Medan was increasing, he said MAS had recently changed the aircraft serving the route from a Boeing 737-400 to a 737-800 Next Generation (NG), which is designed to carry between 162 and 189 passengers.
