The entry a week ago of Malaysia Airlines into oneworld is repositioning the airport as a major global hub. However, it will still need to attract more airlines of the alliance before to become a real competitor to Bangkok and Singapore.
KUALA LUMPUR- Too late? It seems that Kuala Lumpur International Airport – since opening in 1998- always looked to catch up with its competitors in Singapore and Bangkok. Despite the superb facilities offered by KLIA – uncongested air terminals and runways, fast rail link to Kuala Lumpur city, a spotless passengers’ terminal with a wide choice of shops, hotels and services, Kuala Lumpur still stays behind. The airport is home to Malaysia Airlines and the AirAsia Group and welcomes also another 56 carriers worldwide.
KLIA is linked to 114 destinations across all continents. And it welcomed last year close to 40 million passengers, a figure up by six per cent over 2011.
But how impressive are these numbers, they are still behind Bangkok and Singapore. Bangkok airports are linked today to 138 destinations with both airportq welcoming alone 58.9 million passengers last year. Singapore Changi has connections to 145 destinations this winter and accommodated last year over 51 million passengers. Both Singapore and Bangkok are home to the powerful Star Alliance. Thai Airways was a founding member back to 1997 while Singapore joined the bandwagon in 2000. Malaysia Airlines’ integration into oneworld comes over a decade later.
MAS serves currently some 60 destinations –including 16 domestic- in 30 countries. In 2011, the Malaysian national carrier transported 13 million passengers with a fleet of 88 aircraft. Its revenues reached in 2011 approximately US$ 4.5 billion. MAS had a market share of 34.5% in total passengers’ number at KLIA in 2011. Oneworld is now represented in Kuala Lumpur by four airlines- MAS, Cathay Pacific, JAL and Royal Jordanian. So far, at the alliance’s press conference, none of the CEOs confirmed to come into Kuala Lumpur. They are still high hopes that British Airways – a traditional customer of Kuala Lumpur until the early nineties- and Qantas –another traditional customer- would be back soon to KLIA.
Qantas announced already its desire to strengthen its presence in Asia by working also with partners in the region, especially the ones from oneworld. Talking to the Star newspaper early this week, MAS group chief executive officer Ahmad Jauhari Yahya, said, “We are open to the idea of working with Qantas on Asian routes. We need to engage it first to fully understand how the proposed partnership would benefit both airlines, given the current partnerships in place. The benefits must also include our customers.”
The fact that British Airways (BA) will severe its code share ties on the Kangaroo route (Europe-Australia) with its partner Qantas –following the Qantas-Emirates cooperation agreement- is probably an opportunity for MAS to jump into the empty seat and becomes the best partner for BA. This would result into a boosting of the number of flights between London and Kuala Lumpur with a potential daily service from British Airways.
“In my discussions with BA, it has indicated keenness to come back to Kuala Lumpur, but is still evaluating the viability of its operations. It will also depend on the availability of aircraft and suitable slots,” Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd managing director Tan Sri Bashir Ahmad said in replies to the Star newspaper.
Looking at total available seats, oneworld in Kuala Lumpur has now a market share of 33.5%, slightly lower than Star Alliance in Singapore but far behind Bangkok or Hong Kong where the dominant alliance has a market share of over 50%.
The weaker share is essentially due to low cost penetration in both Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. In Kuala Lumpur, it is especially due to the heavy presence of AirAsia. Low cost carriers represent 48.72% of the total seat capacities in February 2013, or the equivalent of 1.147 million of seats while the AirAsia Group alone represents 44.5% of all the seats available out of Kuala Lumpur International Airport
Table- Alliance market share per airport hub (February 2013)
|
Airport |
Main alliance |
Alliance total seats |
Alliance Market Share % in total available seats |
|
Kuala Lumpur |
Oneworld |
786,988 |
33.41 |
|
Singapore |
Star Alliance |
1,124,277 |
36.97 |
|
Bangkok |
Star Alliance |
1,325,993 |
50.14 |
|
Hong Kong |
Oneworld |
1,730,280 |
53.95 |
(Source: IATA SRS Analyzer)
Luc Citrinot a French national is a freelance journalist and consultant in tourism and air transport with over 20 years experience. Based in Paris and Bangkok, he works for various travel and air transport trade publications in Europe and Asia.
