Malaysia

Malaysia Airlines have reported a 30% YoY increase in demand for flights to Malaysia in 2024

The Transport Minister said the Cabinet has approved an RM442.30 million upgrade for Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA). The construction will start in 2024 and is expected to be completed by 2027. Malaysia Airport Holdings will fund this project through private financing initiatives with no government guarantee. The minister said KKIA is the second busiest airport after Kuala Lumpur International Airport with 9.4 million passengers recorded in 2019. Passengers in KKIA is expected to reach 12.5 million passengers annually in 2034

Airbus Asia Pacific President said Malaysia Airlines Bhd is expected to receive its first of 20 Airbus 330-900 (Airbus A330neo) soon. The aircraft should have been delivered in Sep but rescheduled to Oct and missed the deadline as well. Malaysia Airlines said the aircraft has undertaken its first test flight on 6 Nov. Malaysia Aviation Group is supposed to receive 17 new aircraft; 13 Boeing 737-8s and 4 Airbus A330neos, but they only received 4 Boeing 737-8s and only 3 A330neos are expected to be delivered by the end of 2024

The Tourism Minister said Shanghai Airlines would increase the frequency of flights between Shanghai-Penang from 3 times per week to daily flights

The Deputy Transport Minister said Malaysian Airlines Bhd (MAB) has improved its on-time performance (OTP) to more than 80% in Oct from 58.2% in Aug 2024. He said MAB is in the process of acquiring new aircraft to fulfil scheduled flight requirements

Batik Air Malaysia (OD) and FlyDubai (FZ) signed an interline agreement to allow passengers of both airlines to enjoy benefits. FZ customers can fly to over 40 OD’s destinations via Kuala Lumpur and OD passengers will able to fly to 38 new destinations in Africa, Southern and Central Europe, the Middle East, the Caucasus region, and the GCC

AirAsia resumed direct flights between Chiang Rai-Kuala Lumpur from 2 Nov with 3 times flights per week. From Jan-Sep 2024, Malaysia welcomed 1,216,809 and 265,068 tourists from Thailand and Vietnam respectively

Airports Council International in partnership with Flare Aviation Consulting found a sharp increase in domestic airfares in H1 2024 compared to pre-pandemic levels. The study found increases in the domestic markets of India (+43%), Vietnam (+63%), Malaysia (+36%), Thailand (+26%), and Australia (+21%). The fares for the international market increased by 21% in Malaysia, followed by 16% in both India and Vietnam, Australia by 14%, and 7% in Thailand contributed by the low-cost carriers (LCCs). The study found that the Asia Pacific region (LCCs) showed resilience to the pandemic, increasing their market share and bargaining power to influence airfare trends. The Director General for ACI Asia Pacific & Middle East said passenger numbers in Asia Pacific are reaching pre-pandemic levels and travellers paying significantly more especially on domestic routes. He said single airline monopoly saw +25% in airfare but those with competition saw +10%. Airport charges in 2024 decreased by 7% for domestic and increased by 6% for international routes compared to pre-pandemic levels

Transport Minister said the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) can investigate the sale of Malaysia Airport Holdings Bhd (MAHB) shares to a BlackRock-linked company. He said that the Malaysian Aviation Commission (MAVCOM) only regulates competition in the industry

Myanmar Airways International will increase its flight frequency Yangon to Kuala Lumpur from 26 Nov, to 10 times per week

AirAsia Group CCO said they have reached 90% of pre-pandemic capacity and they are only facing challenges in fleets in terms of reactivating aircraft. He said in Malaysia they hold a 60% share, and 45% in Thailand. He said they will continue to invest in growth and the expected delivery of A321LRs in Q4 2025 will give AirAsia more opportunities

Malaysia Airlines will offer free unlimited WiFi on its 4 Boeing 737-8s by the end of 2024. In 2023, Malaysia Airlines started to offer unlimited complimentary WiFi to all passengers travelling on selected widebody aircraft

The Transport Minister said the government is mulling resuming search operations for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 if there is any new evidence. He said the government is negotiating with the Ocean Infinity which proposed in Jun to resume undersea search operations in a new 15,000-square-kilometre area in the southern Indian Ocean. The agreement will be based on “no find, no fee” arrangement

The Sabah government will offer a one-off RM300 subsidy to Sabah students from higher education institutions to return to their hometown during festival seasons. Sabah offered a one-off subsidy of RM600 to Sabah students during Ramadan in 2024 under the ‘Graduan Rindu Sabah’ program

Melaka Chief Minister said flights between Pekanbaru, Indonesia will be re-established to boost health tourism in Melaka. In 2023, 82,941 Indonesian health tourists visited Melaka for treatment. He said the Melaka government is hoping to get support from the Transport and Defence Ministries to make the Melaka International Airport (LTAM) the main choice for light and private aircraft. He said Melaka has the potential to become an aviation hub connecting western Indonesia and Singapore

AirAsia will launch a direct flight between Dalat-Kuala Lumpur on 1 Nov

The Tourism Minister said Batik Air’s direct flight between Bintulu and Kuala Lumpur will boost tourism and business. The inaugural flight was launched on 1 Nov

Malaysia Airlines will showcase its ‘sarong kebaya’ uniforms to highlight its evolution since it was introduced in 1963, in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of Kuala Lumpur. The cabin crew will wear 6 distinct kebaya designs onboard selected flights from 3-16 Nov and a special exhibit will be held at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) Terminal from 3-14 Nov

AirAsia will launch 5 new routes in Q4 2024. The routes are; - Kuala Lumpur-Chiang Rai, Thailand from 2 Nov with 3 flights per week - Kuala Lumpur-Dalat, Vietnam from 1 Nov with 4 flights per week - Kuala Lumpur-Port Blair, India from 16 Nov with 3 flights per week - Kuala Lumpur-Chongqing, China from 15 Oct with 4 flights per week - Kuala Lumpur-Nairobi, Kenya from 15 Nov with 4 flights per week

The Transport Minister said AirAsia will impose a mandatory carbon fee on all passengers starting from 1 Jan 2025. He said the Malaysian Aviation Commission (MAVCOM) has strengthened the Malaysian Aviation Consumer Protection Code 2016 (MACPC) to provide better protection for consumers including the imposition of carbon fees

Jeju Air launched the Kota Kinabalu-Busan route with 6 flights per week adding to its existing Kota Kinabalu-Incheon daily flight service

AirAsia launched four times weekly direct flights between Penang-Shenzhen from 29 Oct

Batik Air will launch Kuala Lumpur-Bintulu flights with 10 flights per week from 1 Nov 2024, and Kuala Lumpur-Miri flights with 14 flights per week from 14 Jan 2025

Langkawi recorded 2.1 million tourists from Jan-Sep 2024, achieving 75% of its 2024 target. Langkawi Development Authority (LADA) CEO said Langkawi will achieve its 3 million tourists target by the end of 2024. She welcomed the inaugural LOT flight from Poland with 275 passengers and she said there will be 22 direct flights from Poland to Langkawi until Mar 2025

The Deputy Transport Minister said AirAsia, AirAsia X and Batik Air added 139,578 seats for Sabah, Sarawak, and Labuan routes. However, Malaysia Airlines reduced its capacity by 95,906 seats in Aug-Dec 2024. He said local airlines offer 1.42 million seats to Sabah, Sarawak, and Labuan routes in Oct 2024

The Transport Minister said the FLYsiswa initiative will be incorporated into the ministry’s annual budget. This initiative will benefit 60,000 students particularly from Sabah and Sarawak

Sarawak Premier said foreign investors are showing interest in Sarawak’s effort to develop an airport with its own funds. He said the airport will be modelled after airports in Abu Dhabi and Doha. He said the airport is expected to serve 15 million passengers and will stimulate the hotel industry and boost the economy

The Transport Ministry will present a paper in the Cabinet meeting to seek approval for the Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA) upgrades. The Transport Minister said the upgrades will be financed by Malaysia Airport Holdings Berhad (MAHB). The expansion aimed to increase the airport’s capacity to 12 million passengers from the current 9 million and development could start in 2025

Capital A announced its regularisation plan which includes a capital reduction of up to RM6 billion to offset the accumulated losses. The group will submit the final plan soon to facilitate its exit from PN 17 status. Capital A will focus on its 4 strong companies such as CAPAS (aviation services), Teleport, MOVE digital and branding company. Capital A CEO said they decided to cancel the $1.15 billion USD special purpose acquisition company deal with Aetherium Acquisition Corp to list AirAsia’s aviation brand manager on Nasdaq after receiving a delisting determination from the Nasdaq in Jun 2024. The termination was a strategic decision to help the group to focus on regularisation plan

AirAsia Aviation Group, comprising AirAsia Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, and Cambodia, released its Q3 2024 operating stats, including: 45 million passengers Q3 2024 YTD with 90% load factor In Q3 2024, it carried 16 million passengers, +8% YoY with 89% load factor and 3 new A321neo aircraft, and reactivation of 3 aircraft, giving a total of 202 planes out of the fleet of 216 as total activated. Overall recovery for passenger numbers are 85% of 2019 levels AirAsia Malaysia recorded 7,583,348 passengers, 89% load factor in Q3 2024 AirAsia Cambodia saw passenger volume increase by 62% QoQ to 41,800, and a 15pp improvement in load factor to 53% AirAsia Thailand saw 4,885,467 pax, +7% YoY and load factor of 90% AirAsia Indonesia saw 1,661,740 pax, -6% YoY and load factor of 89% AirAsia Philippines saw 1,682,800 pax, +3% YoY and load factor of 88% China and India routes saw load factor of 89%, whilst flights out of Subang Airport in Kuala Lumpur have seen load factor of 92% since launching in late Aug Asia Digital Engineering (ADE) closed down 1 hangar in Kuala Lumpur International Airport, but managed to expand from 7 lines to 12 lines in Q3 2024 following the launch of the first 6 lines of the newly constructed 14-line MRO hangar in Aug Inflight catering saw a 5% YoY decline due to lower sales of non-perishable items by 22% YoY AirAsia MOVE recorded a 1% QoQ improvement in Monthly Active Users Q3 2024 saw 3,423,000 transactions, -59% YoY, whilst Gross Booking Value decreased by 30% YoY to RM2,396,150,000 Non-AirAsia airline bookings saw annual growth of 50%, whilst AirAsia flight bookings are down 20% YoY due to “temporary pricing pressures as well as impact of the Crowdstrike incident” Hotels grew 35% YoY due to “improved assortment and personalisation offers” BigPay recorded 1.6 million users, +8% YoY. 44% of new users joined through AirAsia MOVE

AirAsia X recorded 1.08 million passengers in Q3 2024, a +34% YoY increase and recorded 84% passenger load factor, +4 percentage points. The airline said the seat capacity recorded 1.28 million seats, +27% YoY while available seat kilometres (ASK) capacity increased to 5.14 million seats, +17% YoY. AirAsia X launched flight to Changsha (4X per week), Madinah (2X per week) and reintroduced Taipei-Osaka (7X per week)

Malaysia Airlines Bhd (MAB) expressed commitment to focus on improving training and recruitment to address the increasing demand and complexity of modern aircraft. MAB has strengthened its competitive salary offerings to attract and retain workers

The Transport Minister said Malaysia Airlines Berhad (MAB) experienced 181 Return to Chock (RTC) and 18 Air Turn Back (ATB) incidents from Jan-Oct 2024. In 2023 there were 248 RTC incidents and 13 ATB incidents. An RTC order is given when an aircraft encounters an issue which requires it to return to the parking spot and ATB refers to an aircraft to return to the airport of origin after takeoff due to emergencies or abnormal situations

Scoot launched flight from Singapore to Melaka from 23 Oct with 5 flights per week

The Transport Minister said the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia (CAAM) will conduct a comprehensive review of the air traffic control system to expedite flight arrivals at Kuala Lumpur International Airport’s Terminal 1 and 2. He said the government is redesigning the entire airspace structure which will help the airlines with their decarbonisation efforts

AirAsia adopts Combo Units, an advanced airport ground equipment for more efficient fuel usage at Kuala Lumpur International Airport Terminal 2. With this, it became the first airline in Malaysia to do so. The Combo Units technology is able to reduce associated carbon dioxide emissions by 90% at optimal usage. AirAsia will deploy its first 4 Combo Units in Oct 2024 and will introduce additional units in all major domestic hubs by the end of 2025. Upon completion of this AirAsia’s ground-based emission will reduce by 20,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide annually, which is 1% of its total emissions in Malaysia in 2023. AirAsia Chief Sustainability Officer said they are applying to impose a sustainable fee in 20 countries and received approval from 80% of countries and waiting for the balance 20% before announcing the details

Batik Air launched a flight service to Kota Bharu from Subang. Kelantan State Tourism EXCO said this will boost the state’s tourism industry

The Transport Minister said discussions are ongoing to reintroduce direct flights between Russia-Malaysia. He said Malaysia has an AirService Agreement (ASA) with Russia but the implementation of direct flights will be made based on commercial considerations. Currently, only transit flights are available to Russia via China

During the 16th ICAO Air Services Negotiation (ICAN2024) Malaysian Transport Minister said the global airline industry is experiencing a significant increase and projected a +10.4% YoY increase in passenger traffic. He said connectivity to the Asia Pacific region will be fully restored by the end of 2024. He said Malaysia recorded 8.7 million passengers in Aug 2024, +12.7% YoY. For air cargo, Malaysia is expected to record 6%-6.6% YoY growth for 2024, amounting to 20 billion freight tonne km. He said Malaysian aviation sector will experience 4% growth in overall passenger movements driven by fleet expansions and return of foreign airlines