The new Malindo Airways will start regional flights by March 2013 with a fleet of 12 Boeing 737s, said Indonesia’s largest privately run airline, which operates as Lion Air, and Malaysia’s National Aerospace and Defense Industries (NADI). Malindo Airways is a low-cost airline poised to start in May 2013 using the soon-to-completed KLIA2 at KL International Airport in Sepang as its hub.

NADI will own a 51 per cent stake in Malindo Airways, while the balance of 49 per cent will be held by the Lion Grup. The airline plans to initially fly to Kota Kinabalu in Malaysia as well as destinations across Indonesia, Manila, Hanoi and cities in Australia and China.

NADI is a major player in Malaysia's maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) industry.

Companies under NADI group are Airod, Airod Aerospace Technology, Airod Techno Power and Aerospace Technology System Corp, Sme Aerospace and SME Ordinance.

Lion Air flies to 72 destinations with 600 daily departures. It also flies to Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam and Saudi Arabia while its long-haul arm Batik Air will begin operations in March next year with six Boeing 737s and five Boeing B787 Dreamliners.

Flash News:

Malindo Air, Malaysia's second low-fare airline, which is set to take off later in March has set the fares for flights from Kuala Lumpur to Kuching and to Kota Kinabalu.

The all-inclusive fare for the KL-Kuching flight is RM38 while that for KL-Kota Kinablau is RM68. The flights is from KLIA Main Terminal.

Malindo's chief executive officer Chandran Ramamuthy told StarBiz recently the airline will begin flying from March 20 to March 30. ...Read More