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SECOND HUB... Malaysia Airlines staff Suzanne and Subashni Nair pointing to the strategic location of Kota Kinabalu.
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10th August, 2010
KOTA KINABALU: Malaysia Airlines (MAS) is making Kota Kinabalu its Eastern hub, leveraging on the geographical advantages of the city as an ideal gateway for passengers traveling between major international destinations.
Announcing the major undertaking yesterday, the national carrier said the hub will be developed over three stages beginning Nov 15 this year until June 3, 2011, involving introduction of new increased frequencies of international flights.
Under the plan, MAS has also committed to position six planes, including two latest Boeing 737-800 aircraft, at Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA) along with 150 technicians and 250 cabin crew.
MAS managing director and chief executive officer, Tengku Azmil Zahruddin when making the announcement yesterday, said the decision was driven by the increase in demand from countries such as China, Taiwan, North Asia, Indonesia and Australia.
“We picked Kota Kinabalu to leverage on the strategic location of the city as an ideal gateway to promote travels between the markets mentioned.
“This is the right time to develop the (eastern) hub with the upturn of this industry in Asia. It provides us opportunity for growth in yield, load factor and destinations -we expect a potential improvement of between RM60 million and RM100 million per annum to our bottom line as a result,” he told a press conference here, yesterday.
Tengku Azmil said the setting up of Kota Kinabalu as the Eastern hub will enable the national carrier to provide customers with better flight schedules and connectivity as they would not need to rely on flights from Kuala Lumpur.
Through the new hub, MAS would operate three new non-stop weekly services to Haneda and two other weekly non-stop flights to Osaka, Japan starting Nov 15, 2010 and Jan 15, 2011 respectively.
Other new direct flights to destinations in China, Indonesia and Australia would be announced later.
In addition, the airlines would also double its service to Seoul, South Korea from two to four flights a week.
Kuching will have more access to these international destinations as flights connecting it to Kota Kinabalu are increased to 25 flights a week from the current 14 flights weekly.
To enhance connectivity, Tengku Azmil said they would also synchronize flights schedule, including those operated by MASwings to ensure speedy flight change for transit passengers at KKIA.
The transition of KKIA into a MAS hub, he added, would better link North Asia and China to Kota Kinabalu, with daily and weekly flights making Sabah and Sarawak more accessible to tourists.
The introduction KK as Eastern hub would also see MAS become the second in the world and the first in Asia to use the new 737 Boeing built with enhanced Sky Interior design for improved operational security feature and in-flight entertainment experience.
“Our customers will enjoy roomier interior, better ambience, higher ceilings, mood lighting, in-flight entertainment system on every business and economy class seats,” said Tengku Azmil.
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