Malaysia Airlines (MAS) aims to rake in RM60 million to RM80 million revenue a year from its new Kota Kinabalu hub, said chairman Tan Sri Dr Munir Majid today.

The airline today officially launched the new Eastern hub in Sabah in conjunction with welcoming its new B737-800 aircraft to the state.

MAS took delivery of the first B737-800 aircraft from Seattle, the United States, two weeks ago.

With tremendous growth in tourist arrivals to Sabah, MAS chief executive officer Tengku Datuk Seri Azmil Zahruddin said the RM80 million target was achievable.

I'm confident MAS can achieve even more than that, he said.

In the first half of this year, tourist arrivals totalled 1.1 million, a 5.2 per cent increase compared with the same period last year, said Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman, who earlier opened the new Eastern hub at the Kota Kinabalu International Airport.

In proving MAS' commitment to developing Sabah as its second hub after Kuala Lumpur, Dr Munir said MAS would place its first six B737-800 aircraft in Sabah.

MAS has ordered up to 55 B737-800s and will receive at least another two of the aircraft this year and another six next year.
It is also expected to receive five new A330-300s next year, with the first to arrive in April 2011.

He said MAS was leveraging on Kota Kinabalu's strategic location as an ideal gateway for tourists from Australia, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea.

Later today, the B737-800 aircraft will perform its first flight to the Haneda International Airport in Japan. The flight received overwhelming response with the seats almost fully booked.

The aircraft is also expected to fly thrice weekly to Perth from Jan 15, 2011 and non-stop flight to Seoul will be increased from three to four a week.

The first flight to Seoul from the Eastern Hub will take off tomorrow. By June 2011, Kota Kinabalu will have daily flights to Taipei and Hong Kong and twice weekly to Osaka.

In line with this commitment, MAS has invested RM4 million to establish a domestic and international golden lounges at the Kota Kinabalu International Airport to better serve passengers.

To date, MAS has 12 lounges globally with more than 200,000 Enrich members. Enrich is a customer loyalty arm of MAS. -- Bernama