Transmenu powered by JoomlArt.com - Mambo Joomla Professional Templates Club

©New Straits Times (Used by permission)

NEW YORK, WED:
Malaysia Airlines (MAS), after having cut down its flights from three to two a week since August 2008, will revert back to its thrice a week frequency to Newark airport in New Jersey effective March 28, 2009.

Malkit Singh, MAS’ New York-based area manager (eastern region), said the earlier cut was due to spiralling fuel prices and the slowdown in the US economy which forced the national airline to cut costs to stay afloat.

“But we will be reverting to our former flight frequency of three a week effective Apr 1, 2009. This will also meet the demand during the Easter holiday and the ensuing spring and summer seasons when demand, generally, rises regardless of the economic situation,” Malkit told Bernama here today.

He said MAS would also change 8.45am departure time from Kuala Lumpur to the east coast of the US cause it has inconvenienced many passengers.

“We will depart from KL around midnight and reach Newark at about 10am. This will enable the passengers to have the rest of the day to themselves,” he said.
Malkit said the change in timing along with the additional frequency would increase the airline’s load factor as this would allow MAS to capture new demand from South-East Asia with immediate connections.

“We will save money on stopover charges such as footing the bill for overnight stay and transportation costs, particularly, for transit passengers.

“The ongoing recession, which has had a devastating effect on the business of many US-based airlines because of a sharp decline in domestic air travel, has not been as severe as we had feared. There has been some impact on our load factor but not on our yield factor,” he said.

He said MAS, however, would not change its 9.50pm flight departure from Newark to Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA).

Malkit said as part of the “go lean” strategy, MAS’ Washington office has been converted into a “virtual office”.

“Two staff members, employed by the airline, work from home.

“Apart from cutting costs and overheads, it also enables the staff concerned to work from their familiar surroundings sparing them a commute during inclement weather conditions, blizzards and rain,” he said.

Malkit said the increase in the number of frequencies would not entail any additional hiring of staff.

“This will keep our costs down and will be a big saving for us,” he said.

He said the “one through fare” — the direct one-time check-in of passengers boarding at KLIA through Newark to any destination in the US — has helped both the airline and passengers save money.

“This is appreciated by our passengers who are spared the stress and hassles of doing another check-in on landing at Newark airport.

“Currently, MAS has this arrangement with Continental Airline,” he said.

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed