Growth in international traffic from India has led Kuala Lumpur-headquartered Malaysia Airlines to increase its India flight capacity or frequencies by over 25% in 2024 on a year-on-year basis.
Speaking to FE, Captain Izham Ismail, Group managing director, Malaysia Aviation Group, said the airline’s load factors on India routes have exceeded 80%.
The airline has targeted to carry approximately 2 million passengers from India-based destinations in FY24.
In Q4 2023, the airline strengthened its connectivity to India with the launch of three new routes, including Amritsar, Trivandrum, and Ahmedabad.
“We have recently increased frequencies… This expansion has helped us cross our pre-pandemic levels of operation in the market,” he said.
Currently, the airline operates 69 weekly flights from nine Indian destinations, including Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kochi, Amritsar, Trivandrum and Ahmedabad.
The enhancement of its flight frequencies from Trivandrum – from two to four times weekly, beginning April 2024, will raise the count of its weekly flights to 71.
According to Ismail, the airline will gradually add new routes to cater to the increasing travel demand.
“Over the next few years, we are looking to explore the northeast region, including Guwahati and Kolkata, along with potential routes to southern destinations like Trichy, Vizag, and Goa,” he said.
He said that the airline has achieved a 20% enhancement in market share in 2023 compared to 2019.
“Our strategic objective for 2025 is to further this progress by doubling the improvement to 40% compared to our 2023 performance,” he added.
The airline is also working on having a deep codeshare with an Indian carrier. Currently, the airline has an interline agreement with Vistara.