KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Budget carrier AirAsia expects to add over 100 domestic flights a day following the government's plan to give it routes from money-losing Malaysia Airlines, a top official said Friday.
AirAsia, the region's largest no-frills airline, currently operates 250 flights daily.
But the recent government decision to hand over Malaysia Airlines routes to AirAsia will add at least 108 flights daily to its current schedule, AirAsia's director of corporate affairs and strategy Timothy Ross said in prepared text to an investment conference here.
AirAsia needs 10 planes to handle the additional flights, and may get
six of those from Malaysia Airlines Bhd. AirAsia could also hire as
many as 800 Malaysia Airlines staff, Ross said.
It wasn't immediately clear how many domestic flights will continue to
be operated by Malaysia Airlines, or MAS. The airline has said only
four of its 118 domestic routes were profitable. Local media had
reported the airline may cling onto four or five key domestic
destinations, which are mainly urban centers and tourist spots.
MAS is also expected to streamline its international routes because
only 48 out of 114 are profitable. It has said it would gradually shift
to a "hub and spoke network" to boost its competitiveness.
Earlier this month, it announced that from June it would cease
operations to seven international routes _ from Kuala Lumpur to
Ahmedabad and Kolkata in India, Xian in China, Padang in Indonesia and
Manchester and Vienna in Europe.
MAS recently reported a loss of 616.4 million ringgit ($165 million)
for the October-December quarter, its third straight quarterly loss,
which it blamed on higher fuel costs and higher provisions for expected
future costs.
Unions representing its 23,000-workforce on Thursday appealed to the
government not to allow AirAsia to assume the airline's domestic
responsibilities, saying as many as 7,000 jobs could be lost.
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