Malindo Air (Kuala Lumpur International) has set its sights on opening a second turboprop base at Penang before year-end with Kota Kinabalu and Kuching also a possibility. The new bases will support several new routes among which Penang to Johor Bahru and Kuala Lumpur Subang to Kuantan were launched earlier this week.

In its report, CAPA Centre for Aviation says the Lion Air (JT, Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta) subsidiary will base "two or three" ATR72s at Penang with international flights to Krabi in southern Thailand to commence in September. Phuket and Banda Aceh in Indonesia are also being considered.

The airline is currently studying basing an ATR72 each in the eastern Malaysian towns of Kuching and Kota Kinabalu with a decision due at the end of next month.

Overall, Malindo will back the expansion with a growing ATR72-600 fleet of which five arrived during the first half of this year while an additional six are due from now until December.

CAPA says the decision to focus on expanding the turboprop fleet marks a departure from the carrier's original strategy which originally focussed on serving domestic trunk routes using a fleet of B737-900(ER)s.