Malaysia Airlines plans to fly daily from Cebu

Malaysia's national carrier, Malaysia Airlines (MAS) mulls opening a daily flight from Cebu to Malaysia, it depends however on the success of its four-times-a-week frequency flight which will take off on October 30, 2006.

According to Rene Philip H. Banzon general manager for Transnational Aero Corporation, the General Sales Agent (GSA)of Malaysia Airlines in the Philippines, the airline has seen the rapid growth of passenger demand both inbound and outbound with the Cebu-Kuala Lumpur direct flight route.

From only twice a week frequency, the airline decided to expand its direct flight services in Cebu to four times a week because of the growing traffic, Banzon said.

The airline has already gotten an approval from Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) to fly in a seven days a week frequency from Cebu to Malaysia, but it has decided to utilize the four times a week frequency, and may use the full-week frequency in due time, depends on the success of the four times a week expansion, Banzon said in an interview.

The entry of Malaysia Airlines to Cebu, which started its twice-weekly direct flight operation here some 16 years ago, has given easy access to passengers bound for Europe, Australia, and other offline destination such as Norway, Sweden, among others.

Banzon said the airline noted an increase of passenger volume, especially for immigrants and fiancé traffic, OFWs (Overseas Filipino Workers) going to United Kingdom (UK), as well as leisure and business travelers going to and out from Cebu to Europe.

MAS first took off in Cebu in October 29, 1993 operating with a B737-300 series with a twice-weekly frequency. This is the first time that the airline decided to expand its direct flight services in Cebu after 16 years.

Tourism stakeholders in Cebu had been calling airline companies, both local and international carriers to open direct flights in Cebu, in order to provide easier accessibility to tourists, especially the European.

Banzon dismissed impression that the airline has been affected by the entry of budget carriers in Luzon, offering much cheaper rate going to Malaysia, among other countries.

He said Malaysia Airlines, has different market with the budget or low cost airlines.

Malaysia Airlines has a total of 110 aircrafts flying over 100 destinations across six continents, carrying a mission to provide a personalized excellent ground service consistently exceeding its customer's expectation.

The airline has recently embarked on a Business Turnaround Plan (BTP) spearheaded by the recently appointed managing director, Idris Jala that is expected to turn-around the business in two years.

This strategy involves the trust and commitment from all management and staff and intends to follow a series of specific cost and revenue actions, which will result in a profit of RM500 million in 2008, an all-time high profit for MAS -and will position the airline to further improve its net income.