Malaysia Airlines to launch Balikpapan service

Malaysia Airlines is is to launch flights to a new international destination with the inauguration of scheduled services linking Kuching and Kota Kinabalu with Balikpapan, Indonesia.

Effective 3 July 2003, Malaysia Airlines will operate twice weekly flights on Mondays and Thursdays between Kuching and Balikpapan, departing Kuching at 1135 hours to reach Balikpapan at 1320 hours. The return flight departs Balikpapan the same day at 1405 hours to arrive Kuching at 1550 hours.

Effective 4 July 2003, Malaysia Airlines will operate twice weekly flights on Tuesdays and Fridays between Kota Kinabalu and Balikpapan, departing Kota Kinabalu at 1400 hours to reach Balikpapan at 1545 hours. The return flight departs Balikpapan at 1630 hours to arrive Kota Kinabalu at 1810 hours the same day.

A two-class configured Boeing 737-400 aircraft with 16 First and 128 Economy Class seats, will be used for these new services injecting a total capacity of 288 seats per week per direction on each route.

The two services linking Kuching and Kota Kinabalu with Balikpapan will be operated on a code-share with Garuda Indonesia.

Commenting on the commencement of the two new services, Dato' Ahmad Fuaad Dahlan, Malaysia Airlines' Senior General Manager (Sales, Distribution & Marketing) said, "This is yet another commitment by Malaysia Airlines, in cooperation with Garuda Indonesia, towards the growth of the air transport  industry within the BIMP-EAGA region. Apart from contributing towards the region's continued sustainable economic development, we also hope to tap the natural traffic potential in this vast and populous region for both our intra Asian and long haul flights through Kuching and Kota Kinabalu, which have been earmarked as our secondary Malaysian aviation hubs".

With the introduction of these new services, Balikpapan becomes Malaysia Airlines' 7th Indonesian destination, after Jakarta, Medan, Surabaya, Denpasar, Pontianak and Tarakan.