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| Sunday, 16 May 2004 |
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Malaysian Airline Cargo meets growth targets Malaysian Airlines System Bhd's (MAS) cargo unit has met all its growth targets for the fiscal year ended March 31 2004, with revenue surpassing the RM2 billion mark for the first time. Malaysia Airlines Cargo Sdn Bhd (MASkargo) had forecast a 15-19 per cent increase in revenue for the year just ended, from RM1.7 billion recorded in the year ended March 31 2003. MAS Senior General Manager (cargo) Ong Jyh Jong said the subsidiary also reported a net profit of some RM100 million in the period, in line with the company's own forecast, and saw double-digit percentage growth in the tonnage handled. It had forecast an 11 per cent growth in air cargo volume for the year just ended. The company's contribution to MAS' total revenue increased by "a couple of percentage points" above the 19.8 per cent for 2002/03 "We certainly want to build this business to no less than 25 per cent of the group's revenue. I am not surprised that we may be able to surpass this even in the current year ending March 31 2005," Ong told a news conference in Petaling Jaya, Selangor. The cargo unit is planning capacity growth of 30 per cent for 2004/05 by adding six new destinations, which will generate more than 20 per cent increase in its revenue. They are Manchester, Basel, Bangalore, Beijing, Milan and Beirut. Of the cargo capacity growth, 52.4 per cent will come from its existing fleet of eight B747-200 freighters and 13.8 per cent from the belly-hold of MAS' passenger aircraft. Last year, MASkargo's capacity was 3,238 million cargo tons per km. With the new destinations, MASkargo now operates 14 times to Europe weekly, compared with 10 flights previously. The freighter services currently cover Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Hong Kong, Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, Osaka, Shanghai, Bangkok, Dubai, Taipeh and Tokyo. Ong said MASkargo is also considering operating to Malpansa in Italy and Beirut, and expects to do so within three months. The cargo unit will continue to focus on markets in Australia; South-East Asia; the Orient, particularly China and Thailand; India and Europe. "We are still looking at the US, but there are a couple of issues that need to be ironed out, particularly in relation to security requirements and the changing requirements that the US authorities impose. "Also, there is an election going on in the US and whatever happens, we would like to know whether some of the conditions that are put in place are still going to be there," Ong said. |
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