MC Interview: Malaysia Airlines claims it would operate two million flights from Indian locations between 2023 and 2024

 MC Interview: Malaysia Airlines claims it would operate two million flights from Indian locations between 2023 and 2024

According to chief commercial officer Dersenish Aresandiran, the airline plans to serve 600,000 people with its recently established routes from Thiruvananthapuram, Amritsar, and Ahmedabad by the end of 2026.

Based in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia Airlines' chief commercial officer, Dersenish Aresandiran, told Moneycontrol on November 1 that the airline intends to serve 2 million, or 20 lakh, passengers from Indian locations in 2023–2024.

After adding Thiruvananthapuram, Amritsar, and Ahmedabad over the winter, the airline plans to expand its network in India from six to nine locations by the end of 2023. The airline considers India to be one of its top foreign markets.

By the end of 2026, Aresandiran said, Malaysia Airlines anticipates serving 600,000 people via its recently established routes from Thiruvananthapuram, Amritsar, and Ahmedabad.

He continued by saying that Malaysian airlines have made full use of the air traffic rights (ATRs) that India has provided, and they anticipate that this will change soon as India grants additional ATRs.

The airline is eager to increase its footprint in and out of India, having already used over 90% of its pre-pandemic capacity there.

Revised passages:

By year's end, Malaysia Airlines will fly to nine locations in India. How many passengers from India is the airline hoping to carry in total in 2023–2024?

We want to carry a total of around 2 million passengers from Indian locations in 2023–2024.

The commencement of operations to Amritsar, Thiruvananthapuram, and Ahmedabad has been announced by Malaysia Airlines. How many passengers are you hoping to serve from each of these routes in 2023–2024 and subsequently by 2025–2026, based on your internal assessments of these routes?

Given that India continues to be a significant foreign market for us, we expect a significant rise in demand with the launch of these new routes, therefore I am enthusiastic about India's future potential. We anticipate serving over 600,000 people on these three routes alone by the year 2026.

Has Malaysia Airlines established a 2025 market share goal in India? If so, what percentage of India's global market share are you hoping to capture?

For our India market, Malaysia Airlines has seen a 20 percent increase in market share from 2019. By increasing the increase to 40% from our 2023 performance, our strategic goal for 2025 is to continue this success. Our goal is to maintain our dominance on the Malaysia to India route in order to contribute to both nations' tourist industries.

India offers us plenty of chances for development and progress since the country has the third-largest aviation industry in the world and is also one of the fastest-growing.

Positive aspects including a quickly expanding population and rising purchasing power are anticipated to boost demand for travel, both domestically and abroad.

India has already been one of Malaysia Airlines' principal overseas markets. Over 90% of our pre-pandemic capacity has already been reached in India, where we are now running 57 weekly flights to six locations: New Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, and Kochi.

By the end of this year, we hope to have reached pre-pandemic levels again.

Should the governments of Malaysia and India consider expanding their bilateral aviation rights with each other? If not, when do you think there will be a need to expand the number of bilateral flights?

It is estimated that 2.75 million Persons of Indian Origin (PIO) live in Malaysia, making up around 9 percent of the country's total population, according to the High Commission of India in Kuala Lumpur. We are eager to increase our footprint in and out of India as a result.

But we are constrained by the guidelines included in the National Civil Aviation Policy, 2016 of India, which directly affects bilateral traffic rights for nations that are entirely or partly within a 5,000-kilometer radius. Some carriers may not have used all eighty percent of their allotted capacity. Carriers from outside or nations that have maximized their bilateral rights are pushing for more capacity.

The ATRs that were provided by India have been completely used by Malaysian airlines; the most recent increase was made in 2012. There are presently no options for increasing aircraft frequencies on major cities because of this regulation. We do, however, have faith that this will soon change, particularly as Malaysia Airlines increases the amount of foreign tourists visiting India and helps the country's economy flourish.

Since the COVID epidemic, airfares on the majority of foreign itineraries have increased dramatically. In the next six months, how do you think airfares will fluctuate, particularly on the routes you run?

The very unstable geopolitical and economic landscape directly affects travel costs. According to a recent research conducted by Airports Council International (ACI), there has been a significant increase in post-COVID timings of up to 50% between the fourth quarter of 2022 and the pre-COVID months of 2019.

Pent-up demand, capacity constraints, the influence of fuel and foreign exchange are some of the reasons contributing to the increase in airfares. Seasonality and competition (versus other airlines) can affect airfares.

In our opinion, the difficulty is in balancing the predicted level of market demand with the appropriate amount of seat supply. If there is too much supply, a harmful and unsustainable price war is likely to break out.

With our Lite, Basic, and Flex ticket families, we provide varying value or pricing points to serve to diverse market groups. At Malaysia Airlines, we are proactively managing our capacity and operations to offset unprofitable flights owing to increased fuel prices.

Have business travel on the routes you run to and from India returned to pre-COVID levels?

Travel plans made in the wake of the pandemic were mostly for leisure or visiting friends and relatives (VFR) purposes. But as CAPA indicates, business travel is now gradually making a comeback in the sector. Strong office culture returns have played a major role in the business segment's revival.

From Malaysia Airlines' perspective, business travel on the South Asian routes is getting close to the benchmark but has not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels. Nonetheless, there has been a noticeable improvement of more than 30% over the previous quarter. Travelers on vacation continue to dominate this market sector. We do, however, believe that the business section will shortly recover.

With its own business travel proposition products, such MHbiz Pro and MHbiz Plus, which provide a range of benefits to this specific market, Malaysia Airlines is ready to meet the expected demand.

How has the demand for travel from India been impacted by the delays in visa processing? When do you think these problems will be fixed?

In the tourism industry supply chain, delays in obtaining visas have created a complex environment that has affected India and the rest of the world. There is a considerable drop in the total demand for foreign travel as a consequence of travelers' struggles to make timely preparations, which has a substantial influence on both the leisure and commercial travel sectors. This has also created difficulties for a number of associated sectors, resulting in a drop in income and reservations.

Nevertheless, there is a positive anticipation that the backlog and postponed procedures from the pandemic period will normalize as quickly as feasible, given that the travel business is getting back to its pre-pandemic level.

The Indian government is seeking for Delhi and Mumbai to become major international aviation hubs for passenger transit, MRO operations, and aircraft leasing at GIFT City. Do you think Malaysia Airlines has a chance here, or are you afraid?

In an effort to improve connectivity and shorten travel times, the government has launched a comprehensive plan to turn the airports in Delhi and Mumbai into aviation hubs. This effort will simplify the transition between incoming and leaving aircraft, which will help airlines and passengers alike. As such, it is unquestionably a beneficial move for both local and foreign carriers.

Concurrently, the Indian government's aggressive push for regional connectivity is a positive development. It will put regional hubs on the international map and provide the aviation industry a further boost. As a result, India presents us with enormous expansion possibilities.