MAG to increase aircraft capacity by 15 pct this month

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia Aviation Group Bhd (MAG) is planning to increase its aircraft capacity by an additional 15 per cent on top of the 20 per cent of pre-Covid level projected for this month, in light of Malaysian borders reopening.

The airline group expects that by year-end the capacity would reach 70 per cent of pre-Covid capacity level, said MAG group chief executive officer Captain Izham Ismail.

MAG is the parent company of Malaysia Airlines Bhd.

Capt Izham said that with the trend of higher demand (inbound) coming from India, the United Kingdom and Europe into Malaysia, the airline is looking at 80 per cent capacity.

“Our forward looking until the middle of this year has been encouraging… of course the conflict in Europe as well as the impact of high oil prices, those factors come into play, but in the context of movement, it has been encouraging.

“Our domestic business is just like our competitors in Malaysia, we are also looking at very high load factors moving between Sabah and Sarawak,” he told reporters after a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signing between Malaysia Airlines Bhd and Perbadanan Kemajuan Kraftangan Malaysia.

He said the airline group saw the booking picked up from the last couple of weeks since the government announced the reopening of Malaysia’s borders on April 1.

Meanwhile, in her speech, Kraftangan Malaysia directorgeneral Aididah Ibrahim said the MoU is aimed at promoting and marketing local handicraft products through several initiatives that will benefit handicraft entrepreneurs as well as national airline customers, through Malaysia Airlines’ digital platform JOURNIFY.