Malaysia’s first hybrid airline, Malindo Air will be introducing their international flight by end of this year.

Malindo Air chief executive officer, Chandran Rama Murthy said their first international flight will be on the India route and followed by southern China route.

“We strongly feel there is great potential between India and Malaysia market based on the amount of traffic movement between both countries. First, we are looking on the Krichit and Delhi,” he said during the press conference after the historic landing of Malindo Air at Miri Airport on Friday.

He added, after that Malindo Air will be targetting the market on southern part of China especially at Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Kunming.

When asked why the neighbouring country like Singapore is not being a primary target for Malindo Air to penetrate, he said that they are actually targetting the Singapore market by the end of this year.

“However, we have to refer back to the objective of Malindo Air which is making Malaysia as transit hub. Singapore may have 3 to 5 million population but there are a billion population in India and China so that by targetting India and China it will definitely boosting the airlines profit,” he said.

In the meantine, after the success of their inaugural flight to Kota Kinabalu, Kuching and Sibu, Malindo Air again achieved another milestone when they landed in Miri for the first time.

Sarawak’s Assistant Minister for Communication, Datuk Lee Kim Shin and his entourage greeted the passengers with a traditional Sarawakian reception.

“We are glad to have Malindo Air flying into Miri, as it connects travellers between Borneo and Peninsular thus providing more options not only for those who are with oil and gas companies, but also for tourist who are using Miri as gateway to various national parks in this region,” said Chandran.

“Response from the public is good. Within the first month of operation at the end of April, we registered 50,000 passengers and it increase on May when there were 125,000 passengers have been recorded using the airlines,” he said.

The support given by the state government, public, and media really boosting the airline to be one of the challengers in the airlines industry.

“The first month of load-factor was 70 per cent while the second month of non-factor reached 80 per cent and we are trying to add more flights especially to Sabah and Sarawak,” he said.

He added that Bintulu and Tawau will be the next destinations that Malindo Air will be flying to. “Once we had Bintulu and Tawau in our flight plan, we had covered the whole major route in Sabah and Sarawak,” said Chandran.

By next year, the Sabah-Sarawak route also will connected by Malindo Air via Kuching to Kota Kinabalu, Sibu to Kota Kinabalu and Miri to Kinabalu.

“Miri has a lot thing to offer especially with their tourism industry like the unique Niah and Mulu Caves and we are working closely with Sarawak Tourism Board,” he said.

Malindo Air operates three daily flights to Kota Kinabalu and Kuching and one daily flight to Sibu and Miri.

They are expecting to add Tawau and Bintulu in their flight route soon.

Malindo Air also operates three daily flights to Kota Bharu, two daily flights to Penang and one daily flight to Johor Bahru from Skypark Terminal in Sultan Abdul Azizi Shah Airport in Subang.