MAS bullish on growth for KL-Paris route

PARIS: Malaysia Airlines (MAS) is optimistic of the growth in passenger and ticket sales for Paris-Kuala Lumpur route this year, despite the European Union being threatened with financial crisis as the Greek debt problem continues.

The national carrier, which celebrates its 30th anniversary flying from Paris, is also unfazed with the operations of budget carrier AirAsia X between Paris and Kuala Lumpur, which commenced in February.

MAS area manager for France, Spain, Portugal and Nordic countries, Sarjanisham Darus, said competition from other players in the Paris-Kuala Lumpur route is getting stronger but MAS continues to grow its market share in that sector.

"Every year, there is growth (for MAS) in terms of traffic and turnover, with our market share growing.

"We are pushing hard to expand our current market share of 56 per cent with various campaigns, attractive packages and good products," he told visiting Malaysian journalists here on Saturday.

MAS started its operations from Paris on April 2 1981 via Kuala Lumpur-Dubai-Paris-London. It was once weekly flight using DC10-30 aircraft. Later, the service became twice weekly, three times, four times and five times weekly.

In November 2006, the full-service carrier started daily operations and is now operating Boeing 777-200ER.

MAS sales manager (France) Jean-Francois Raudin said in the first five months this year, MAS' turnover or tickets issued was 40 per cent higher than in the same period last year.

He said about 25 per cent of passengers for Paris-Kuala Lumpur route are business travellers, while the remaining are holidaymakers and others.

Raudin expects the number of business travellers to rise further, given the good relations between France and Malaysia, in both the private and government sectors.

He also said that AirAsia X attracts different type of travellers, especially first-time travellers to Southeast Asia.

"Since AirAsia X started its operations, we haven't seen any drop in our load factor," Raudin said.

The load factor of MAS - the only full-service carrier operating direct between Paris and Kuala Lumpur - is currently at 82 per cent.

However, Sarjanisham said the budget carrier may have an impact on MAS operations later, especially because travellers in this part of the world are sensitive towards price.

"But, we will make sure that we'll continue to grow and not lose out to competitors. We will enhance our marketing, package our products well and make use of the IT platform as the French are IT-savvy.

"With the pressure on pricing, we will have to keep the cost down, be more efficient, carry more load and come out with better packages," he said.

MAS' entry into oneworld alliance would also help boost the load factor as the operations of other members in the alliance would link Paris-Kuala Lumpur sector to other regional hubs in Europe, he added.