Malaysia Airlines will add a second daily Airbus A380 service between Heathrow and Kuala Lumpur from late November, taking the rise in capacity from London this year to 200 seats a day.
The Malaysian flag carrier launched its first A380 flights from Heathrow at the beginning of July and goes double daily from November 24.
The new service will take Malaysia Airlines’ capacity increase from the UK this year to 30%. The carrier is relying on travel agents to fill the seats, having already increased passenger numbers by 14% so far this year.
Huib Gorter, senior commercial vice-president for the UK,said: “The largest share of our revenue is through agents and we’re looking to enhance that relationship. You will see more of a focus on the trade. That is our strategy to get more traffic to Malaysia.”
UK area manager Yuzrizal Mohd Yousif said: “Our load factors from the UK have been 90%. Our flights are full even in business class. But the market hasn’t grown. We are pulling people off other carriers.”
Senior marketing vice-president Dean Dacko insisted: “The second A380 should have a dramatic effect. We have put a lot of offers into the market and will embrace our trade partners. We want agents to get the message that we are easy to do business with.”
He promised a dedicated “agent travel portal before the end of the year” to provide “messaging, education, product knowledge and incentives”.
Malaysia’s A380 services will depart Heathrow at 10:15 and 22:00, with the latter moving to midnight for the summer schedule.
Gorter said: “By the end of 2013 we’ll have one of the youngest fleets in southeast Asia. We are re-engineering the network and looking at making Kuala Lumpur a major hub for Asia.”
Malaysia Airlines will become a full member of the Oneworld alliance with British Airways from February 1 next year.