Malaysia Airlines rethinks narrowbody strategy around Subang

Indonesia's TransNusa to expand to int'l ops in early 2Q23

Indonesian carrier TransNusa (8B, Kupang) will launch its first international route in mid-April. It will begin Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta - Kuala Lumpur International flights on April 14, to be followed by a roll-out of scheduled services between Jakarta and other Malaysian airports, including Johor Bahru.

The airline will use its three A320-200s and single A320-200N on the sector and operate the round-trip Jakarta-Kuala Lumpur flights 2x daily. TransNusa group chief Bernard Francis told local media that the service would help meet strong passenger demand on the route. Traffic on the Indonesia-Malaysia country pair leans heavily towards Indonesian nationals who travel to Malaysia for business, tourism, and education reasons.

According to ch-aviation capacities data, seven scheduled passenger carriers already service the route. With the biggest market share is Malaysia Airlines (23.4%), followed by Batik Air Malaysia (21.98%), Indonesia AirAsia (19.48%), AirAsia (12.98%), Batik Air (11.69%), Garuda Indonesia (5.84%), and Citilink (4.64%). In total, the airlines offer almost 39,000 seats a week on the city pair....

Canada Jetlines grows A320 fleet, eyes A321neo

Malaysia Aviation Group restructures into three divisions

Malaysia Aviation Group (MAG), which includes Malaysia Airlines (MH, Kuala Lumpur International) among its subsidiaries, is to be split into three dedicated profit centres - airlines, aviation services, and loyalty and travel solutions. The re-organisation will establish MAG as a fully-fledged operating company overseeing group-level support functions and subsidiaries and involve significant executive leadership changes.

Ahmad Luqman Mohd Azmi becomes CEO of airlines, a portfolio that includes Malaysia Airlines, MASwings, Firefly, and Amal by Malaysia Airlines. CCOs will be drawn from each airline, including Nasaruddin A. Bakar from Malaysia Airlines, Hamdan Che Ismail from Firefly, Suresh Singam from MASwings, and Muhammad Najmi Mansor from AMAL.

Mohd Nadziruddin Mohd Basri becomes the CEO of aviation services, which looks after cargo, ground handling, training, and maintenance, and MRO. Entities in this portfolio include MABkargo, AeroDarat Services, MAB Academy and MAB Engineering. MABkargo will retain its own CEO, Mark Jason Thomas, while the other entities in the aviation services portfolio will be represented by COOs, including Ibrahim Salleh from AeroDarat Services, Aida...

Malaysia's AirAsia to open Subang base

AirAsia (AK, Kuala Lumpur International) is expected to return to Kuala Lumpur's Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport, informally known as Kuala Lumpur Subang, after being forced to quit the airport 21 years ago.

Speaking at a media conference on February 8, Capital A CEO Tony Fernandes said AirAsia has applied to base ten aircraft at the airport and recommence operations there. The move follows a Malaysian government decision to allow scheduled passenger carriers to use narrowbody aircraft as large as B737-800s and A320-200s at the airport, located just 24 kilometres from the centre of the city.

"I always have said that it is a waste of an asset," Fernandes told reporters. “A big city like Kuala Lumpur should have two airports." Until Kuala Lumpur International, known as KLIA, opened in 1998, Subang was Kuala Lumpur's primary airport. In 2002, AirAsia and Malaysia Airlines were ordered to switch their operations to KLIA to boost traffic through that airport. Subang Airport is presently serviced by four passenger carriers - Firefly...