Malaysia's Rayani Air Sets 10 Years To Capitalise Umrah, Haj Pilgrimage Market

LANGKAWI (Kedah, Malaysia), Dec 21 (Bernama) -- Rayani Air, the first Shariah-compliant airline in Malaysia, is setting a 10-year target to establish a network to capitalise on the umrah and haj pilgrimage market, says Managing Director Jaafar Zamhari. For a start, the airline, which just received approval from the Department of Civil Aviation to begin operations, is taking "small steps" to fulfil the requirements set under Islamic law in their operations before executing more plans within the next few years. "We will continue to work together with the authorities towards refining our steps from time to time but our ultimate intention will be to capitalise on the (umrah and haj) markets," he told reporters after arriving on Rayani Air's maiden flight from Kuala Lumpur to Langkawi International Airport (KIA). Jaafar said Rayani Air had acquired two Boeing 737-400s aircraft at this initial stage to serve KLIA2 in Kuala Lumpur and Kota Bharu (Malaysia's east coast state Kelantan) with LIA as their operation hub, before including Kuching (Sarawak) and Kota Kinabalu (Sabah) next year. Both Sarawak and Sabah are east Malaysian states. "It is our hope that the decision to make Langkawi our operation's hub will turn Langkawi into a hub for tourism where travellers would come here first before being channelled to other tourism destinations in the country," he said. The airline also plans to add two more Boeing 737-400s and two 737-800s to its fleet by 2017 as a move to increase its domestic routes and flight frequencies. --BERNAMA