15 November 2018
India’s largest low-cost carrier (LCC) IndiGo, is confident of securing a large portion of the low-cost travel market in Malaysia, despite highly intense competition from existing carriers.
IndiGo chief commercial officer William Boulter said the airline welcomed competition and was not in any sense worry about strong presence of Asia’s LCC, AirAsia.
He said Malaysia was no stranger to the fast-growing low cost travel market, citing that the airline can do its best to support Malaysia and cultural business tourism.
“Given our success from the dominance 43 per cent domestic Indian market, we have successfully applied the model to other international markets such as the Gulf region.
“We believe in providing courteous and hassle-free service, on time performance and low fares,” he told NST Business after welcoming IndiGo’s inaugural flight at klia2, here, today.
IndiGo became the 59th airlines operating at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KUL), with the inaugural flight arriving at klia2 earlier this morning.
KUL is IndiGo’s 12th international destination after flying from Delhi, India, carrying 180 passengers on its Airbus A320 aircraft.
Boulter said IndiGo would aim to operate its introductory flights with 80 per cent of load factor.
“We achieved this range historically and we would like to stimulate demand. If load is not picking up quickly, then we will offer cheap prices to attract passenger,” he said.
Although India and Malaysia have different sizes and population, Boulter said these countries share common traits in terms of multi-cultural communities.
“Therefore, we can significantly connect to the cultural and tourism business between the two countries. We also work to serve that market where there will be a mix of businesses for leisure, family and religious passengers’ traffic growth,” he said.
Boulter said IndiGo would also plan to increase flights frequencies and introduce more destinations to Malaysia starting next year, banking on its strong presence in Indian market and potential Indian tourists as well as a fleet of about 200 aircrafts.
“We also have strong orders for 430 A320neo Family last year. We will take our first A321 by end of November this year. We are very convinced that the choice of Malaysia is very strong.
“Therefore, we are confident there will be more destinations and frequencies introduce in Malaysia moving forward,” he said.
Source: www.nst.com.my
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