We are continuously reviewing the opportunities in the Indian market and will gradually add new routes, upgrade aircraft wherever needed to meet these demands especially during peak travel periods, says Country Manager- South Asia Malaysia Airlines India Amit Mehta in an exclusive conversation with Whereabouts.
To start with, would you like to elaborate on the latest development or initiatives of Malaysia Airlines?
Malaysia Airlines was recently named Asia’s Leading Airline for Business Class at the 29th World Travel Awards. The award is a testament to our successful efforts to maintain the highest service level and safety assurance through our #FlyConfidently commitment.
We also introduced MHPay, an alternative payment method for consumers to seamlessly purchase air tickets, ancillary products, and services via malaysiaairlines.com. MHPay, developed in partnership with the International Air Transport Association (IATA) through IATApay and powered by 2C2P, the full-suite payments platform, is intended to complement the airline’s entire range of digitalised payment methods by facilitating greater access to all payment options through a single integration point.
What are your plans for customer, marketing activities of Malaysia Airlines? Malaysia Airlines offers something for everyone. We continuously enhance and devise our products and offerings to ensure a seamless, end-to-end travel experience for our customers – be it for leisure or business travel. As travellers look for more flexibility in their itinerary, we have also introduced various fare families and products that offer highly flexible and convenient perks, including free flight changes.
Our Horizontal Fare Family (HFF) offers customers a flexible fare based on their travel needs, preferences, priorities and purchasing capabilities consisting of Lite, Basic and Flex where each fare family has different benefits such as baggage allowance, seat selections, priority services.
We also introduced the MHflypass ASEAN travel pass which provides convenience and flexibility, allowing for three return trips within 12 cities at a fixed rate within a one-year period. Passengers can also make the most out of their itinerary with our ‘Bonus Side Trip’ programme by adding an extra leg to their journey to explore the cultural gems Malaysia has to offer at minimal costs.
Travellers can also plan their getaway fuss-free through the airline’s tour operating arm, MHholidays, which provides a single platform for customers to choose and tailor-make their holidays according to their destination, budget and length of stay–this includes flights, accommodation, ground transfer services, as well as holiday packages.
With business travel steadily picking up, our MHbiz Pro and MHbiz Plus programmes are designed for small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and corporates that wish to self-manage their corporate travel. We have also introduced MHbiz Events, a customised travel solution for events such as corporate incentive trips to large-scale events, be it domestic or international, with a wide range of services and connections across our expansive networks. Both organisers and delegates can get exclusive benefits, such as flight discounts, complimentary tickets and more.
On top of this, students enrolled in our MHexplorer programme can enjoy varying benefits including discounts on flight tickets all year round, additional baggage allowance, shopping discounts and many more fun perks; enhancing their travel experience with a variety of great benefits and savings.
How many destinations/cities are being covered by Malaysia Airlines across India? Kindly elaborate on the load factor/flight occupancy to/from India especially after the pandemic effect? We are continuously reviewing the opportunities in the Indian market and will gradually add new routes, increase frequencies or upgrade aircraft wherever needed to meet these demands especially during peak travel periods.
Malaysia Airlines has reinstated its scheduled commercial services from India with 31 weekly flights from five (5) major cities, namely New Delhi (DEL), Bangalore (BLR), Mumbai (BOM), Chennai (MAA), and Hyderabad (HYD). Current load factor for the market has been encouraging with up to 70% load factor on these flights and forecasted forward load factor of up to 80% by the end of 2022.
Beginning December 2022, we will ramp up frequencies on the existing routes and also reinstate weekly flights from Kochi (COK), increasing the overall weekly flights to 52 which will provide greater convenience and flexibility for travel between the two countries.
Any comment on travel-trade engagement and future traffic? We sincerely appreciate the great efforts made by our travel agents, who play a crucial role in aiding the sector’s recovery, especially given the rising demand for travel. We have an excellent relationship with our trade partners, and I firmly believe that their support has enabled us to successfully compete in this industry.
As travel restrictions continue to ease, we remain bullish that the demand for travel will continue to improve. This is not without its challenges, of course, with the pressure on fuel prices which we continue to pro-actively monitor in managing our capacity to mitigate unprofitable routes. We invite travellers to experience the inimitable Malaysian Hospitality and seamless connections with Malaysia Airlines, together with its sister airlines under the Malaysia Aviation Group.
