Malaysia Air spreads wings, to add five local destinations

Malaysia Airlines is planning to add five new Indian destinations "" Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Amritsar "" to its route network.

The airline has already initiated discussions with the Union civil aviation ministry for this and expects to get the necessary approvals soon.

M S Kamaruddin, area manager (west India), Malaysia Airlines, said, "We envisage a huge growth potential in the Indian market. We are looking at launching five new connections out of India. We are conducting a feasibility study and plans to launch new frequencies out of these places after necessary approvals."

The Malaysian carrier currently operates 18 flights per week out of five cities in India. Its operations in India include seven flights a week out of Chennai, four each out of Delhi and Mumbai, two flights out of Bangalore and one out of Hyderabad. Indian tourist arrivals in Malaysia stood at 1.45 lakh in 2003 out of which leisure tourists accounted for 52.5 per cent.

Buoyed by a 153 per cent rise in Indian arrivals in Malaysia for meetings, incentives, conventions or exhibitions (MICE), Tourism Malaysia, the nodal agency that promotes tourism in the country, today announced the launch of the MICE campaign along with a series of special incentives for Indian corporates.

These benefits include preferential airfares, special accommodation and transportation rates, dissemination of information collaterals, facilitation on custom and immigration clearances and special discount rates on various convention centers.

India has emerged as the eighth largest contributor to the total Malaysian MICE arrivals, ahead of UK and Germany, said Mirza Mohammad Taiyab Beg, deputy director general Tourism Malaysia who is leading a 20-member delegation for a three-city road show in India.