BANDUNG COMPLEMENTS MAS' PLANNED NETWORK GROWTH

SEPANG (Malaysia), July 16 (Bernama) -- Malaysia Airlines' (MAS) latest
destination to Bandung, Indonesia, complements the airlines planned network
growth with its fleet renewal plans.

Bandung was MAS' second new destination for this year after Dammam in Saudi
Arabia, which took off early this year.

"There might be a couple more new destinations this year," said chairman Dr
Munir Majid at the unveiling ceremony of new destinations.

He said MAS remained the preferred airlines, with 85 per cent passenger load
for the Indonesian route.

MAS offers daily flights to Bandung, thus, offering 88 weekly flights in
total
from Kuala Lumpur to five other key gateways in Indonesia including Jakarta,
Surabaya, Jogjakarta, Denpasar and Medan.

Updating on MAS' fleet refresh plan, Dr Munir said MAS has ordered up to 55
B738-800s, 25 A330s and six A380s which will be delivered from this year until
2015.

By 2015, the national carrier will have one of the youngest and most
environmentally-friendly fleets in the region, he said.

He said MAS will be taking delivery of B737-800 this year which will be
used for domestic and regional routes.

"The A330-300s will serve the growing markets of South Asia, China, North
Asia,
Australia and Middle East while the A380s will be deployed for Sydney, London
and possibly Amsterdam," he said.

In addition, he said, MAS was reviewing its aircraft requirement to fill the
gap between A330s and A380s in terms of capacity and range.



"We are evaluating the B787 Dreamliner and Airbus A350 extra wide body. We
are
also studying the new B777-300 ER which could replace the B747-400 that
we operate now," he said.

Meanwhile, MAS' managing director and chief executive officer Tengku Azmil
Zahruddin said the airline will be focusing its route expansion within the
Asia-Pacific region in years to come as it is recognised as the key growth area
for travel demand.

According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), passengers
travelling within the Asia-Pacific region showed an increase of 13.2 per cent in
the first five months of this year as against the same period last year.

It might reach 66 per cent in 2028.

Whether the current economic slowdown in Europe had some impact on MAS, he
said: "We do see demand from Europe being less than demand from Asia. It is an
issue right now. We are monitoring it."

Asked to quantify the lower demand from Europe, he said: "Last year was
already a bad year and this year is better than last year but the improvement is
not as good as what we see in Asia.

"Europe will take longer time to recover."

-- BERNAMA