News From : DagangHalal.com (18 Jan 2010)
KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 18 (Bernama) — Malaysia Airlines Cargo Sdn Bhd (MASKargo) aims to post 10-15 per cent growth this year by growing its network via smart alliances and building on its capacity, its managing director, Shahari Sulaiman said Monday.
He said this could also lead to a 20 per cent revenue contribution to the Malaysia Airlines (MAS) group for 2010 from the current 17-18 per cent.
“We are looking to expand our presence overseas with smart alliances. We feel that the worst is behind us and we can focus on doing business and expanding our freighters,” he said.
“Although the business environment still remains challenging, we in the industry are expecting 2010 to be less volatile with moderate growth forecasted,” he told reporters at a briefing here.
Shahari also said cargo performance in the last quarter of 2009 was “abnormal” as the increased demand caught them by surprise.
“A lot of other freighters were still parked at that time (following the global crisis), but because of this unexpected surge, our yield improved by 20 per cent and load factor was at 75 per cent when the industry’s average was only between 50 and 55 per cent,” he said.
As more than 70 per cent of its businesses are from overseas, Shahari said MASKargo had signed a strategic cooperation deal with the Hainan Group to provide better connectivity to domestic destinations in China and increase feeder traffic from Chinese domestic points to MAS routes.
“We are working closely and hope to start a major initiative with them by May 2010,” he said.
The collaboration would include increasing MASKargo’s frequency to Shanghai up to eight times, as it is the centre for the hi-tech industry.
Besides that, he said MASKargo was also focusing on the halal industry which has helped its business by bringing in livestock.
Last year, the company handled 28 livestock charters amounting to 1.368 million kg, with most flights coming in from Australia.
In support of Malaysian agricultural products, he said they had revised the capacity to support the industry by up to 22 per cent this year.
On another note, he said MASKargo was collaborating with Senai Airport Terminal Services to enhance Johor’s airport as an alternate airport serving the southern region of the peninsular, including Indonesia’s Batam and Sumatra as well as Singapore.
The collaboration has achieved an average of 98 per cent load factor with 30 per cent of the average cargo origin and destination in the state.
“If this trend continues, there’s probability we would introduce additional capacity,” he said.
Shahari also explained that MASKargo would be spending RM100 million to expand its warehouse and upgrade the handling system in the next four years.
On another note, he said they may be disposing one or two of its 747-200 freighters in order to fully utilise the rest of its 747-400s, once the lease expires this April.
— BERNAMA