Budget carrier MYAirline to begin competing against AirAsia in December 2022

After much anticipation, it’s been revealed that new Malaysian low-cost carrier MYAirline will begin flying in December 2022, with reports having confirmed approvals from the Malaysian Aviation Commission (Mavcom) and Civil Aviation Authority (CAAM) for the company to start selling tickets.

Also, the airline took to its social media pages to hint at its very first flight destinations, which will most likely include Malaysian cities such as Kuching, Kota Kinabalu, and Langkawi, judging by the graphics in its posts.

This comes after the airline’s CEO Rayner Teo said that MYAirline would seek domestic air traffic rights, with flights to begin very soon after approvals.

“We’re hoping to start flying before the end of this year,” he said. “We’re looking at domestic destinations within the Peninsula.”

The airline — which currently has 330 employees and is still hiring — will look to start off its operations with three Airbus A320 aircraft flying from Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (KLIA2).

While all of the airline’s planes are currently under lease, Teo also revealed that the airline has the goal of increasing its fleet to 50 aircraft within the next four years.

As an aside, he mentioned that starting the company during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic was crucial to helping it learn from competitors about how to operate such a business and serve its customers better.

“A lot of feedback that we hear is that it’s hard to reach the airline after you have purchased a flight ticket,” heMYAirline explained. “As for us, we’ll ensure that our passengers can communicate with us effectively.”

“We won’t be looking at chatbots, but rather focus on human interaction. On-time performance is also something that we’ll focus on.”

With the travel industry now opening up around the world following the pandemic, flyers in Southeast Asia (especially Malaysia) will more than likely be pleased at the arrival of more competition in the space, especially when considering the many well-documented issues faced by travelers dealing with more established rivals like AirAsia.