MAG plans to increase aircraft capacity by additional 15% this month

Malaysia Aviation Group Bhd is planning to increase its aircraft capacity by an additional 15 per cent on top of the 20 per cent of pre-COVID level projected for this month, in light of Malaysian borders reopening. The airline group expects that by year-end the capacity would reach 70% of pre-COVID capacity level, said MAG group CEO Captain Izham Ismail. MAG is the parent company of Malaysia Airlines. Capt Izham said that with the trend of higher demand (inbound) coming from India, the United Kingdom and Europe into Malaysia, the airline is looking at 80% capacity. "Our forward looking until the middle of this year has been encouraging... of course the conflict in Europe as well as the impact of high oil prices, those factors come into play, but in the context of movement, it has been encouraging. Our domestic business is just like our competitors in Malaysia, we are also looking at very high load factors moving between Sabah and Sarawak,” he told reporters. He said the airline group saw bookings pick up from the last couple of weeks since the government announced the reopening of Malaysia’s borders on April 1.<br/>