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Tuesday, 29 June 2010

MAS To Capture Untapped Traffic From Middle East's Secondary Points

SUBANG, June 29 (Bernama) -- Malaysia Airlines Bhd is eyeing RM26 million in revenue per annum, which is 60 per cent of the traffic to Kuala Lumpur and beyond, from various secondary Middle Eastern points by entering into a code sharing agreement with Oman Air.

"This partnership expands and strengthens our hub and spoke network. We will be able to capture untapped traffic from secondary points in Middle East through Muscat on our network," said MAS Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Tengku Datuk Azmil Zahruddin.

He said many passengers were currently travelling to Kuala Lumpur and beyond via other Middle Eastern points.

"The main aim of the code sharing is to enhance revenue," said Tengku Azmil.

The code sharing agreement signed today takes immediate effect and would enable MAS passengers to enjoy non-stop flights from Kuala Lumpur to Muscat and connect seamlessly to Amman and Kuwait City.

The partnership also provides passengers with more flight options to Dubai and Beirut, he said at the partnership signing ceremony here Tuesday.

Also present was Oman Air Chief Executive Officer Peter Hill.

Oman Air passengers who currently enjoy direct flights to Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok will now be connected to six new destinations in Malaysia and Asia, namely, Langkawi, Kota Kinabalu, Penang, Kuching, Singapore and Hong Kong.

It will be expanded to others points eventually.

"Oman Air is relatively a small airline company with big dreams. We believe the partnership will pave the way not only to some South East Asia countries but also the Pacific region (as we) currently fly only to Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur in the region," said Hill.

This partnership would also pave the way for closer co-operation between the two airlines on a range of other joint initiatives, including collaboration on frequent flyer programmes, ground handling, customer support, cargo and airport lounge access, said Tengku Azmil.

He said the tie-up with Oman Air has its own value proposition and commercial standard point as MAS also has a code sharing agreement with other Middle Eastern airlines.

MAS currently offers 17 weekly flights between Kuala Lumpur and the region, namely Dubai (seven times), Jeddah (four times), Beirut (three times) and Istanbul (three times).

It also operates seasonal flights between Kuwait and Kuala Lumpur in line with summer demand from Middle East to Malaysia and beyond.

Oman Air offers four weekly flights between Muscat and Kuala Lumpur.

With this partnership, its customers will enjoy many weekly flight options to Langkawi (35 times), Kota Kinabalu (62 times), Penang (63 times), Kuching (49 times), Singapore (49 times) and Hong Kong (14 times).

Hill noted that the traffic from Oman to Kuala Lumpur was good and growing fast.

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