SYDNEY: Malindo Air has completed its Australian ‘jigsaw puzzle’ with the launch of its Kuala Lumpur-Denpasar (Bali)-Sydney route.
Sydney is the airline’s fifth Australian major city destination after Perth, Brisbane, Melbourne and Adelaide.
Chief executive officer Chandran Rama Muthy said the airline is prepared to increase its flights to Sydney from once a day to two flights daily during the peak season to cater to the rising demand from passengers.
“If you don’t fly to Sydney, you are losing a big catch point area in Australia. For example, Perth has a population of two million, while Sydney has six million.
“This is a great achievement for Malindo, and I believe that Sydney is the final piece in the airline’s jigsaw puzzle of metro cities in Australia,” he told Malaysian reporters on the sidelines of the Kuala Lumpur-Denpasar (Bali)-Sydney inaugural flight last Thursday.
Chandran said Malindo’s air passenger traffic is set to grow with the latest addition to its flight network.
“Malindo currently flies to 17 countries across the Southern Asia and Asia Pacific region, and with the additional route, we expect to see a growth in passenger traffic,” he said, adding that the airline expects to attract 100,000 passengers per year for its Sydney flights. – Bernama
Moving forward, the airline targets to fly seven million passengers this year, and plans to launch its flights to Da Nang, Vietnam this October to cater to demand, especially during the peak holiday season in the last quarter of 2019.
As of March 2019, Malindo has a fleet of 41 aircraft, and plans to purchase several more 737-800 aircraft during the second half of this year. – Bernama
