Malaysian Airlines planning to increase India connectivity

, May 13: To cash in on the rapidly growing aviation market in the country, Malaysian Airlines is looking at enhancing air connectivity to India, especially to tier two cities.

"We are looking at more connectivity to India and are evaluating the market here," Malaysian Airlines' general manager for western India, Nur Shaffik Haris, told PTI.

The airline may look at secondary points in the next phase of expansion in India, he said. India, currently the 9th largest aviation maket in the world, is expected to become the third largest by 2020, according to the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) and air transport IT specialist, SITA.

The Malaysian Airlines would operate five additional services on the Mumbai-Kuala Lampur-Mumbai sector between 13-31 May to cater to the holiday passengers, he said.

The new services would be in addition to the 40 weekly scheduled flights. "Apart from the Malaysia-bound passenger, we also ferry a good number of transit passengers for destinations like Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia, besides carrying some passengers bound for Australia and New Zealand," he added.

PTI