Malaysia Airlines’ CEO says charter business could eclipse main airline division

Malaysia Airlines’ new charter business for its Airbus A380 fleet could eclipse the main airline operations to become the most significant part of the group’s business, its CE said. Irish Independent reported CEO Peter Bellew as saying that the charter business, which is expected to begin in 2019, would do “very well”. “I think it will do very well. I think it may well eclipse what we’re doing in terms of the main Malaysia Airlines,” he reportedly said. The airline will transfer six of its A380 superjumbo jets to a new entity to manage the charter business. The new entity would entail 800 staff, up to 500 which will be new hires. One of the main targets for the charter business are companies that are bringing Muslim pilgrims for the Hajj and Umrah. “We have a lot of requests from very large global holiday travel companies that have a requirement to move vast numbers of people over about a 22-week season from one part of the world to another,” he said.<br/>