Malindo To Receive 5 Dreamliner From PT Lion

Malaysia's first hybrid airline, Malindo Air, will receive five Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner from its parent, Indonesia's PT Lion Group, in 2015.

Malindo chief executive officer Chandran Ramamuthy said the airline will deploy the aircraft on six-hour routes, such as to the Middle East, North India, North Asia and Australia, from Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA).

He also said the airline is considering flying the B787 Dreamliner to North China from Kota Kinabalu International Airport.

"We requested for five B787 aircraft. Initially, we may get three while the other two will be given to Batik Air," he said after the launch of its ticketing office at Skypark Subang Terminal yesterday.


Malindo has planned to expand its network in three phases that include domestic routes, five-hour radius routes and medium-haul routes, which have a radius range of about eight to nine hours.

Chandran said under the first phase, the airline will will fly all of its Peninsular Malaysia routes from the Subang airport.

He added that Malindo will step into the second phase in the second half of the year.

"We need to have the domestic footprint first. Our aircraft is focusing between Sabah and Sarawak and Peninsular Malaysia, whereas our ATR (turboprop operation) will focus on the shorter routes, which are the one-hour flights from Subang to Penang, Kota Baru, Johor Baru, Alor Star and Langkawi," he said.

On its current performance, Chandran said the demand is going strong and it has carried about 125,000 passengers since May 22.

Malindo's jet operations achieved a 70 per cent load factor in its first month of operations.