MAS TO GET NEW AIRCRAFT IN TIME GLOBAL ECONOMY RECOVERS

By Tengku Noor Shamsiah and Mahanum Abdul Aziz

KUALA LUMPUR, June 29 (Bernama) -- Malaysia Airlines (MAS) is set to receive
its new aircraft in tandem with the recovery in global economy, its executive
director/chief financial officer Tengku Azmil Zahruddin Raja Abdul Aziz
said.

He said now was not a good time to take delivery of the aircraft.

"The B737-800 aircraft is expected at end-2010 and the A280 by 2011. So
we are expecting to get the aircraft at about the time we are hoping the economy
will then start to recover," he told Bernama at the Annual KLIA Awards ceremony
in Sepang last Friday.

At the event, MAS was named 'Airline of the Year' for third consecutive
years.

AirAsia won the 'Low-cost Airline of the Year' award and AirAsia Indonesia
'Foreign Airline of the Year' award.

For cargo category, Malaysia Airlines Cargo Sdn Bhd won 'Airline of the
Year' award and Korean Air received 'Foreign Airline of the Year' award.

KLIA Awards, organised by Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd, offers recognition
to 15 different categories of airline and service providers operating in Kuala
Lumpur International Airport (KLIA).

The winners received the award either based on passenger movement, strong
growth, good sales performance, international recognition as well as service
performance -- all based on 2008 performance.

The awards were presented by Deputy Transport Minister, Robert Lau Hoi
Chew.

Tengku Azmil said all the airline's plans it had announced earlier were in
place.

MAS has launched its global low-fare campaign which would see it selling
some six million seats at low fares to stimulate travel demand.

The low fares were only made available for lean flights, in line with the
airline's dual-pricing strategy.

MAS would also hold more than 70 travel fairs globally until 2010 and that
the airline's Stimulus Package, launched earlier this year, has seen sales
increased by up to 30 per cent.

On whether the airline will cut its routes, he said: "We haven’t cut routes
for a while, (but) we have reduced capacity.

"I think MAS is not the odd one out. Airlines worldwide are reducing
capacity."

He said globally, the capacity cut was about seven to eight percent although
that would be less than the reduction in passenger numbers.

Tengku Azmil said during times like this, MAS wanted to make sure it would
remain viable.

"What we are doing is not much different from what other airlines are doing.

"Singapore Airlines (SIA) has cut its flight capacity further due to a
fall in demand for air travel," he said.

Recently, SIA announced it planned to cancel more than 200 flights before
year-end, especially in the premium segment.

-- BERNAMA