MAS EYES MORE MIDEAST TRAVELLERS WITH ATTRACTIVE FARE PROMOTIONS

By MUIN ABDUL MAJID

DUBAI, Sept 7 (Bernama) -- Having come up with a slew of fare promotions to
suit everyone's budget, Malaysia Airlines is hopeful of grabbing a larger slice
of the Middle East market.

Its Regional General Manager for Middle East and Africa, Merina Abu Tahir,
said since the beginning of the year, the airline had implemented aggressive
sales campaigns, with all-inclusive fares, to deal with the worst crisis facing
the industry.

" The market is growing in the Middle East and in line with this, we're
offering various fare promotions to suit the size of everyone's wallet and
lifestyle.

" Our current ongoing promotions from Dubai is competitively priced
and benchmarked against our competitors," Merina said of the Malaysian
national carrier's marketing plans and promotional attractions for Middle
East travellers this year.

Noting that Malaysia Airlines was offering very competitive fares to
encourage the demand for travel, Dubai-based Merina said sales had been
brisk.

" This demonstrates that the public will choose to travel with Malaysia
Airlines as they know that they'll get value for money as we offer up to 20
kilogrammes of free baggage allowance, free meals, assigned seating
and many other benefits without charging them extra.

" In fact, our July seat was close to 70 per cent," said Merina of the
five-star airline's performance.

According to her, the airline's main traffic during summer was leisure while
travellers to Australia and New Zealand visiting friends and relatives as well
as business travellers were also its target traffic.

" We're now focused on attracting the MICE (meetings, incentives,
conferences and events) traffic and aggressively promoting our corporate
sales programme to multinational companies," she said.

Queried on Malaysia Airlines' strength in the Arab world, she said
the company held a lengthy record of service, best practice excellence, was
well-known for its award winning cabin crew and assurance of serving halal food.

She highlighted that the carrier's cabin crew was recognised as the
World's
Best Cabin Staff 2009, its sixth time since 2001.

" Our In-flight Services Audit and Compliance Department ensures that
all food products served on flights are halal and comply with the standards of
the Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (Jakim) as well as international
standards such as Codex Alimentarius Halal guidelines," she stressed.

Merina added the airline had introduced value fares to the United Arab
Emirate market to allow passengers flexibility to fly with preferred options.

There are MHlow and MHbasic that offer the lowest fares available while
MHsmart and MHflex allow more privileges at affordable fares and value for money
to passengers.

Malaysia Airlines has also introduced the Stimulus Packages offering special
deals covering Business and Economy class travel, including additional free
baggage allowance.

Under the promotions, a return ticket from Dubai to Kuala Lumpur, Terengganu
and Kota Kinabalu costs between Arab Emirates Dirham (AED) 1,945, AED2,672 and
AED3,030 respectively.

All-inclusive return fares from Dubai to Beirut and Karachi cost between
AED1,165 and AED915 respectively, while attractive fares are also in store for
Philippines, Indonesia and Canton.

For families, there is the "Kids Fly Free" promotion whereby those who
purchase two adult tickets can get a free child ticket.

Under the MHflex category, a passenger can purchase one Economy class ticket
and bring a companion along for free.

Malaysia Airlines currently operates non-stop flights between Dubai and
Kuala Lumpur, five times a week, and via Karachi twice a week.

It also offers three weekly flights between Dubai and Beirut, four weekly
flights between Jeddah and Kuala Lumpur and two weekly flights between Istanbul
and Kuala Lumpur via Dubai.

The carrier also has code share flights from Abu Dhabi, Cairo, Bahrain,
Doha, Kuwait and Muscat to Kuala Lumpur.
-- BERNAMA