MALDINO AIR will commence daily direct services between Kuala Lumpur and Kochi beginning April 24 in support of Visit Malaysia Year 2014.

Flights depart Kuala Lumpur at 21.10 and reach Kochi at 22.35, while return flights leave Kochi at 23.35 to arrive in Kuala Lumpur at 06.00 the next day.

Chandran Rama Muthy, CEO of Malindo Air, said the new route was mounted in support of the Visit Malaysia Year 2014 project.

This is the fourth Indian destination the airline is serving after receiving approval from India’s aviation authorities (TTG Asia e-Daily, December 3, 2014). Malindo began New Delhi flights on December 30 last year and Trichy on January 2. Mumbai flights will take off on February 15.

To mark its latest flight, Malindo is rolling out promotional fares from RM399 (US$120) for economy class and from RM999 for business class, all-inclusive one way.

VIETNAMESE carrier VietJetAir yesterday finalised an order with Airbus for purchase of 63 aircraft at the Singapore Airshow.

The agreement sees VietJetAir firming its orders for 42 A430neo, 14 A320ceo and seven A321ceo aircraft, plus 30 purchase rights. The airline will also lease eight more A320 planes from third parties.

Luu Duc Khanh, the airline’s managing director, said: “Based on this experience, we look forward to developing our business across the Asia-Pacific region.”

VietJetAir began operations in 2011 and flies 20 routes including domestic and international destinations like Bangkok, Seoul and Kunming.

Airbus’ latest Global Market Forecast predicts that Asia-Pacific will spearhead global demand for larger and eco-efficient aircraft in the next 20 years, and anticipates higher than average annual traffic growth of 5.8 per cent and replacement of almost 3,770 aircraft currently in use.

Feeding this demand would therefore require some 3,350 twin-aisle aircraft such as the A330 and A350 WXB, and 780 very large aircraft like the A380 model.

STATE-run Myanma Airways has signed a contract for the lease of 10 Boeing aircraft from GE Capital Aviation Services (GECAS) as part of its plan to return to the international aviation scene in June 2015.

Myanma Airways, which sold its stake in Myanmar Airways International (MAI) to KBZ Bank, has in the past operated as Burma Airways Corporation and Union of Burma Airways using the UB flight code. Its network today covers 26 domestic destinations and Gaya in India.

It will receive the first three Boeing 737-800s from GECAS in June 2015, two more in 2016 and a final one in 2017, after which four more of the longer range and more efficient B737-MAX8s will join the fleet, Myanma Airways announced on the sidelines of the Singapore Airshow 2014.

The 10 aircraft are collectively valued at US$618 million at list price.

GECAS subsidiary AviaSolutions will also be an institutional, management, financial and commercial consultant to the airline in strategic growth planning and route and network development.

Cognizant of the potential confusion in the branding of Myanma Airways vis-a-vis MAI, AviaSolution’s principal consultant, Cronan Enright, said: “We are mindful of this situation and will (clarify this when) reaching out to the travel trade nearer the time when Myanma Airways returns to flying to international destinations.”

Although no specific international destinations were named, Myanma Airways’ managing director, Than Tun, named Japan, South Korea and China as markets that the airline is studying.

AIRASIA Singapore is set to begin direct flights to Kuala Terengganu and Kota Bharu in April, while AirAsia X has confirmed the suspension of flights on the Colombo-Malé sector in April.

The four-times-weekly Kota Bharu service commences on April 21, with flights departing from Singapore at 09.10 to touch down at 10.30.

Thrice-weekly flights to Kuala Terengganu leave Singapore at 09.10 and arrive at 10.35, and the service will start on April 22.

To commemorate the new flights to the two Malaysian destinations – gateways to the popular beach getaways Redang and Perhentian Islands – AirAsia Singapore is offering zero-dollar base fares on the routes.

Both offers are open for booking until February 16 and valid for travel until October 25.

Separately, AirAsia’s longhaul arm AirAsia X will suspend flights from Colombo to Malé from March 1, almost five months after it began tagging the service onto the Kuala Lumpur-Colombo route (TTG Asia e-Daily, September 25, 2013).

However, the carrier will continue to operate Kuala Lumpur-Colombo flights with a four-times-weekly frequency.

Challenging business conditions were cited as a reason for the cancellation. “The suspension of Malé, Maldives is a move made to improve operating cost efficiencies and concentrate capacity in AirAsia X key markets of Australia, China, Taiwan, Japan, (South) Korea, Nepal and Sri Lanka,” the airline said in a media release.

Azran Osman-Rani, CEO of AirAsia X, said in the same release: “Despite our efforts, external factors such as the depreciation of Asian currencies against the US dollar and the chronic lack of hotel room supply in Maldives resulted in cancellation of thousands of bookings by travel operators.”

AirAsia X will offer guests who hold bookings after these dates an option of a full refund, a reroute to another AirAsia X destination, or a rebook of a return flight prior to February 28, for no additional cost.

A NEW app that lets passengers enjoy movies, order food and more via their Windows 8 devices was showcased at the Singapore Airshow earlier today.

Developed by Microsoft and Lufthansa Systems, BoardConnect can be customised for new airline customers for a differentiated brand product.

“We are making BoardConnect available on Windows 8 to give passengers even more choices to use the platform,” said Norbert Müller, senior vice president of BoardConnect at Lufthansa Systems.

“This makes it easy for airlines to give their passengers a superior in-flight entertainment experience that allows them to watch a wide range of movies, look at flight information and shop, all from their seat.”

Coming up in the near future is another jointly developed app for Windows 8. The app, mCabin, will give cabin crew all relevant flight details at a glance, including an interactive duty calendar, crew positioning, and passenger information.

PAN Pacific Hotels Group has announced the signing of four management contracts to add three Parkroyal and one Pan Pacific hotels to its Asia-Pacific portfolio, namely in Australia, China and Myanmar.

Scheduled to launch this April in Myanmar’s capital, the 180-room Parkroyal Nay Pyi Taw will feature an all-day dining restaurant, a spa, a gym, a swimming pool and a range of meeting facilities. There is already a Parkroyal in Yangon.

The 281-room Parkroyal Melbourne – the fourth Parkroyal hotel in Australia and second in Melbourne – will open in 2016 in the Digital Harbour Precinct of Melbourne Docklands and occupy the first 18 storeys of The Altus, a 37-storey hotel and apartment complex.

The 360-room Parkroyal Chengdu – the Group’s first Parkroyal hotel in China – is scheduled to open in 2017 along the iconic Sha River and opposite the University of Electronic Science and Technology. Part of a mixed-use development comprising high-end residential units, a hotel, office and retail spaces, the property will feature an all-day dining restaurant, a speciality restaurant, a poolside bar and restaurant, a lobby bar and lounge, a ballroom and meeting spaces.

Also in China, the 300-room Pan Pacific Zhuhai will open in 2017 next to the Gongbei Business Circle and the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge currently under construction. It will feature conference facilities, a Chinese restaurant, an all-day dining restaurant, an executive lounge, a lobby bar and lounge, a swimming pool and a gym.

With these additions, the Group now owns and/or manages 38 properties with close to 12,000 rooms in Asia, Oceania and North America, including those under development.

ACCESSIBILITY to Indonesia’s Lake Toba is expected to be enhanced with an inked MoU between Angkasa Pura II airport authority and the North Tapanuli (North Sumatra) regency government for the development of Silangit Airport near the famed attraction.

Angasa Pura II president director, Tri Sunoko, said in a press statement the plan is to initially expand the runway from 2,250m to 2,400m to enable the airport to accommodate wide-bodied aircraft and boost terminal capacity from 10,000 passengers currently to one million per year.

Tri estimated the development would cost some Rp200 billion (US$16.7 million).

Accessibility has been a major issue for the development of Lake Toba as a tourist destination as it currently takes four to five hours to drive from Medan to Parapat followed by a boat ride to Samosir.

Earlier on, DetikNews reported that Indonesia minister of state enterprises, Dahlan Iskan, said the government would take two steps in supporting tourism for Lake Toba: to develop a toll road between Medan and Lake Toba, and develop Silangit Airport.

Dahlan was quoted as saying: “The development of the toll road may take around 10 years, but elevating the status of Silangit to become an airport (which can cater to direct international flights) only needs another runway that is 150m longer, 10m wider and 20cm thicker.

“When ready, flights from Singapore, Penang and Kuala Lumpur can fly direct to (Silangit) instead of Medan.”

THE Chinese embassy in the Maldives has launched a visa service last month, enabling Maldivian travellers to obtain Chinese visas directly from the capital of Male.

All visas to China were previously issued from the Chinese embassy in Colombo, forcing all local and foreign passport holders alike in the Maldives to fly to Sri Lanka for applications.

The development is a boost to the Maldivian travel trade who regularly makes business visits to China, currently the Maldives’ largest inbound market.

Chinese visitors to the Maldives numbered 230,000 in 2012 and 284,951 between January and October 2013, contributing over 30 per cent of arrivals to the country.