MAHB Expects KLIA Passenger Volume To Go Up With Inaugural Shaheen Air's Flight

SEPANG (Selangor, Malaysia), April 22 (Bernama) -- Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) expects a boost in passenger volume with the inaugural landing of Shaheen Air, a private Pakistani carrier, at the KL International Airport (KLIA) here Friday. The Airbus A330-200 aircraft landed at KLIA at 10am, with 265 passengers, including Malaysia's High Commissioner to Pakistan, Dr Hasrul Sani Mujtabar. More than 100 passengers left Kuala Lumpur for Karachi on the return trip. MAHB Chief Operating Officer, Datuk Abd Hamid Mohd Ali, said MAHB expected passenger traffic at KLIA this year to grow by 2.5 to three per cent with potential expansion for up to 50 million passengers. "With Shaheen Air, we hope to attract a significant number of Pakistani travellers. A total of 66,400 tourists arrived in Malaysia in 2015," he told reporters after the welcoming ceremony for the maiden flight at Gate C2 here Friday. Meanwhile, Shaheen Air Deputy Managing Director, Faisal Rafique, said the airline would fly to new destinations and increase its fleet to 35 aircraft from 25, by 2017. "We have started flights to Kuala Lumpur on Friday and to Bangkok in May. We will be expanding flights to other destinations, including Shanghai and a few more," he said, adding the airline would be flying to 15 international destinations. He said direct flights would strengthen people-to-people and business-to-business ties between the two countries. Faisal said the airline was also targeting some additional 25,000 visitors from Pakistan to visit Malaysia per year. "In recent years, Malaysia has been quite a popular destination for the Pakistanis, as such we feel that we will be fulfiling a strong market demand. "We hope that this route will serve as an 'air bridge' for further development of long-term friendly relations between Pakistan and Malaysia in the fields of trade, investment and tourism," he said. Faisal, who is also Chief Commercial Officer of Shaheen Air, said in a bid to increase traffic and usage for Kuala Lumpur's travellers, the airline would offer return ticket at US$400 inclusive of free visa services. Besides Shaheen Air, Pakistan International Airlines and Malindo Air also offer four-time weekly and twice weekly flights on the Kuala Lumpur-Lahore route. --BERNAMA