Flight paucity restricts Indian outbound to Malaysia.

Date: 1 February 2013

Flight paucity restricts Indian outbound to Malaysia.

MALAYSIA is losing out on the growing outbound traffic from India due to the lack of flights between the two countries.

Mirza Mohammad Taiyab, director general, Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board, said: “The number one concern in India is flights. There was a cutback in (air access) when AirAsia pulled out from North India, affecting the tourist inflow. Indian tourists are hoping for an increase in flights. Connectivity must be enhanced for better passenger movements between the two countries. Among Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, Malaysia has the least flight frequencies to India,” he added.

AirAsia X’s four-time weekly Kuala Lumpur-Mumbai flight was suspended in January last year, followed by the withdrawal of its daily service to New Delhi in March. AirAsia currently flies daily to Bangalore, Chennai, Kochi, Kolkata and Tiruchirapalli, their focus being on shorter flights.

In 2012, Malaysia Airlines (MAS) operated 40 flights a week to India, with 12 weekly flights from Kuala Lumpur to New Delhi and seven weekly flights each to Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai and Bangalore from Kuala Lumpur. MAS’ direct flight to Kolkata was withdrawn after only a few months of operation.

Arvind Tandon, managing director of Mumbai-based Faraway Places, said: “Tourism Malaysia has sustained promotional efforts of several destinations like Kuala Lumpur, Langkawi, Penang, Malacca, Kuching and Kota Kinabalu, and trade players are well-geared to receive Indian guests’ requests. However, we do not have enough flights to plan many groups to Malaysia during the high season even though the visa regime has eased considerably.”

Guldeep Singh Sahni, president, Outbound Tour Operators Association of India, agreed: “The severe dearth of flights, specially from North India, is discouraging Indian outbound travellers and steering them away to other destinations in South-east Asia like Vietnam, Thailand and to some extent, Myanmar.”

By Shekhar Niyogi, Kolkata

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