12 September 2003“It was the worst of times,” was how Chung Leik Kok, new managing director of the soon-to-be resurrected Mekong Airlines, described its disastrous start-up in late January this year.
It was marred by numerous postponements and subsequent flight cancellations. The SARS outbreak forced it to suspend its operations on May 13 after a short three-month run.
MA, which will take to the skies again on September 26, will have a new look, a new management team, and new investors, as part of a move to obliterate its disastrous beginning and map out a better tomorrow.
Chung, whose Kuala Lumpur-based Mekong Air Services was the airline’s GSA for Malaysia at start-up, is determined to revive the vision of having a regional airline hubbing from Phnom Penh and as the gateway between Indochina, South East Asia, China and the Far East.
He rounded up a consortium, comprising Malaysian and Cambodian investors backed by international funding, and raised US$15 million to revive the airline. Although no details were given on the share equity, TravelWeekly understands two Malaysian companies – Chrichton Sdn Bhd and Asian Aircraft Services – are the airline’s majority shareholders.
Kuala Lumpur is MA’s administrative headquarters with Phnom Penh as the operations base.
Heading the MA Malaysia office is Chung, with the new vice president commercial, Mohd Benjamin bin Abdullah, and financial director Valentino Siva.
Plans are to open offices in Bangkok, Seoul, Guangzhou, and Ho Chi Minh next month and Hanoi and Shanghai later in the year, said Chung at a press conference to announce the airline’s relaunch.
The first phase of the relaunch on September 26 will start with the four-times weekly Kuala Lumpur-Singapore-Phnom Penh service, increasing to daily by year end, and daily flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap.
The regional routes will be operated with two leased B737-200s, and the Phnom Penh-Siem Reap route will be run with a Fokker aircraft.
Chung targets about 80 percent passenger load for the regional services.
Phase two, in late October, will see MA leasing two B757-200 aircraft to fly to Guangzhou, Shanghai, Kunming, Seoul, Taipei, Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and Calcutta, where it has obtained sixth freedom rights. It is also in talks with the Laotian government to service Vientiane in time for ATF 2004, with either scheduled or special flights.
Chung is upbeat that the airline will succeed this time “as we have worked out a solid business plan, strong financial backing, and have signed agreements with numerous carriers such as China Southern Airlines and Vietnam’s Pacific Airline to mount codeshare flights.”
MA also intends to capture a share of the business traffic to Cambodia. The aircraft are configured with two classes – executive and economy. The 120-seater B737-200 has eight executive seats and the 238-seater B757-200 has 12 executive seats.
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