Malaysia Airlines to sign pro-rata agreement with Kingfisher Airlines

Malaysia Airlines (MAS) will sign a special pro-rata agreement with India's budget carrier Kingfisher Airlines as a way to improve its hub and spoke approach, said chief executive officer and managing director Idris Jala.

The agreement to be sealed by end of this year would provide travellers with seamless connectivity to about 17 destinations in India, he said. Kingfisher operates services to domestic scheduled destinations, covering Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi, Goa, Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Cochin, Guwahati, Kolkata, Pune, Agartala, Dibrugarh, Mangalore, Srinagar, Vishakhapatnam and Jaipur. MAS, on the other hand, flies to Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabab, Mumbai and Bangalore. Kingfisher will feed to MAS and vice versa. "Such an agreement allows airlines to share revenue," Idris said.

MAS has similar agreements with Gulf Air in the Middle East and Virgin Blue of Australia, he said. Another way to enhance connectivity is by joining alliances, Idris said. "In the future, if there is an opportunity to join an alliance, we would like to do so," he said. Both ways of enhancing connectivity are complementary, he added.

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