Pent-up demand to drive global travel

India has always been an extremely important market for Malaysia Airlines, and being the fastest growing economy in the world at present, the country offers a huge potential. The airline sees many people flying into India from Malaysia, Australia, Indonesia, and other countries, apart from the outbound travellers.

Janice Alyosius

With membership in the Oneworld Alliance, Malaysia Airlines provides seamless connections to more than 1,000 destinations in 170 countries.

The Airlines has a fleet of 80 aircraft, which includes 47 Boeing 737-800s (six Airbus 330-200s, 15 Airbus 330-300s, and six Airbus 350-900XWs, which are no longer in service), and is active throughout Asia, Australasia, the Middle East and Europe. “We are expecting to take delivery of 25 new Boeing 737-8 aircraft from May 2023 through the beginning of 2026,” said Amit Mehta, Country Manager – South Asia, Malaysia Airlines.

From March 27 this year Malaysia Airlines operates 25 weekly flights from India, including flights from five major cities – Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai. “By early 2020, we will be serving 6 destinations including Kochi with 60 weekly flights. Moving forward, we intend to ramp up the capacity in line with borders re-opening and demand forecasts,” he added.

Strategic moves to ensure recovery

As a top priority, Malaysia Airlines is committed to facilitating safe and seamless travel, so that passengers can fly confidently and enjoy the inimitable Malaysian hospitality. Malaysia Airlines’ 7-star rating for COVID-19 health and safety measures from airline ratings highlights the airline’s commitment to comprehensive safety protocols. The airlines is offering significant savings on airfare to all destinations within its network to encourage passengers to fly with them.

Outlook for Indian market

“India has always been an extremely important market for Malaysia Airlines and being the fastest growing economy in the world, it offers a huge potential. In addition to outbound travellers, we also see many people flying to India from Malaysia, Australia, Indonesia, and other countries,” said Mehta.

“We believe that in a market like India where customers have been cooped up at their homes for approximately two years, there would be a strong pent-up demand to travel again. We are expecting closer or short-haul destinations such as Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore to see a strong uptick in the next few quarters, among the first-time international leisure travellers. We are expecting high leisure demand on the India – Malaysia route,” he further added.

Malaysia Airlines anticipates that with the development of the domestic network in India, more customers will be able to fly into Indian online points from tier-2 and tier-3 cities. The domestic air connectivity will also reduce the cost and travel time for tier-2 and tier-3 customers.

Changes in route

As a part of their expansion plans, Malaysia Airlines will be reinstating capacities in phases and gradually increasing frequencies to current destinations. “We will be closely monitoring the market in the coming months to seek new opportunities. Our tailor-made products have been developed based on customer feedback and requirements. We encourage customers to check out our new fare products, especially the Flex fare, which has the most flexibility in terms of cancellation and refund. Additionally, the fare product includes priority check-in, baggage and boarding, as well as 35 kg of baggage” highlighted Mehta.

Key growth drivers

Speaking of the key growth drivers in the air passenger travel, Mehta said that the biggest driver has to be pent-up demand owing to the temporary halt in global travel. Potential travellers are already searching for the best deals to their favorite destinations and are planning to make up for the lost travel time. Another key driver is enhanced air connectivity within India, which will in turn unleash many first-time travelers.

“Despite the turbulent times that the travel industry has gone through, we anticipate improvements in travel demand. We expect destinations such as Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, to see a strong uptick,” he added.