KUALA LUMPUR: Indonesia based airline PT TransNusa Aviation Mandiri (TransNusa) has sold 800 seats for its upcoming maiden Jakarta-Kuala Lumpur flight after four days of launching the ticket sales.
TransNusa chief executive officer of group aviation Datuk Bernard Francis said about 700 of the seats were booked from Indonesia while 100 were from Malaysia.
"We open for sale (for the Jakarta-Kuala Lumpur route) last Friday without much awareness and marketing and we sold about 800 seats in the last four days," he said, adding that Kuala Lumpur would be the airline's first international destination foray.
He was speaking to reporters in a media briefing via Zoom today.
The maiden flight will start from April 14 this year from Soekarno-Hatta International Airport to Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) Terminal 1.
TransNusa, which is 51 per cent-owned by PT Panca Global International Indonesia and 49 per cent held by Singapore-based Linkasia Airlines Group Ltd, was launched in Indonesia as a low-cost carrier in 2005 flying out of Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta International Airport.
After the Civid-19 pandemic, the airline rebranded itself as a premium service carrier in the international market that has a new business model offering products and services between the full-service sector and above the low-cost sector.
Bernard said the first three years of the pandemic proved to be a challenge for TransNusa due to the worldwide lockdown.
"The three years gave us the opportunity to relook, re-engineer and reinvent ourselves. We looked closely at our passengers' wants and needs, which had changed drastically due to the pandemic, and developed a new business model that sits comfortably between a full-fledged commercial airline offerings and above low-cost airline products," he said.
Bernard is an aviation industry expert who had experience working with Malaysia Airlines Bhd, AirAsia X Bhd and Philippines Airlines Inc, among others.
TransNusa will operate two round-trip flights from Jakarta to Kuala Lumpur and vice versa using the narrow-body Airbus A320 daily with prices starting from RM299.
The flights will depart from Jakarta to Kuala Lumpur at 7am as well as 4:50pm while the flights from Kuala Lumpur to Jakarta will depart at 10:40am and 8:35pm.
By year-end, Bernard said TransNusa would have six A320s and three Comac ARJ21 in its fleet.
The airline is the first international airline customer for the Chinese state-owned aerospace company, Comac.
Currently, the airline has one A320neo (new engine option) which is one year old and three 12-year old A320ceo (current engine option).
When asked if TransNusa would operate the ARJ21 aircraft on its Jakarta-Kuala Lumpur flights in the future, Bernard said it would depend on the market demand.
"We'll start the route with A320 first and we'll see the market demand. The Comac (ARJ21) can carry up to 95 passengers. We could use it but we'll have to see the market demand," he said.
Moving forward, Bernard said TransNusa was looking to launch Jakarta-Johor Bahru after the commencement of the Jakarta-Kuala Lumpur flight.
He said the airline has obtained approvals from the Transport Ministry and the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia and it was waiting for the green light from Indonesia's aviation authorities.
He added that Penang was not in TransNusa's immediate list of Malaysian destination to fly to as majority of the international travellers who go there wad mainly for medical tourism.
However, Sabah and Sarawak pose interesting opportunities for the airline.
"I've met with Sabah Tourism and Sarawak Tourism to explore opportunities. It's a greenfield market, not many direct flights," Bernard said, adding that TransNusa was studying the demand for Kuching and Kota Kinabalu routes.