MASkargo Confident of Continuous Growth at Penang Cargo Centre (PCC)
Issued on 15 September 2008

PENANG, 15 September - Malaysia Airlines Cargo Sdn Bhd (MASkargo) is confident that its business at the Penang Cargo Centre (PCC) will continue to flourish albeit the fluctuations of fuel price.

Though tonnage at the Penang Cargo Centre has dropped about 5% since June this year, yet mishandling rate is maintained at a record low of 0.03% from 0.06% last year.

MASkargo charted strong financial performance in the Second Quarter of 2008. Cargo traffic revenue enhanced by 9 percent to RM586 million as compared to 2Q2007 despite an 8 percent reduction in capacity. The increase was attributed to a significant improvement in load factor by 9 percentage points.

As Penang is MASkargo’s second largest hub in Malaysia, the national cargo carrier hopes to strengthen its position in the northern region by focusing on more efficient and innovative ways of transporting cargo and through investment of technology.

In terms of security at the PCC, at the moment MASkargo has close circuit televisions (CCTV) for cargo and security monitoring. It will also continue to have arm escorts for all truck flights linking Penang Airport to KLIA.

MASkargo Penang operates six outbound (three flights to Europe and one to Japan) and five inbound freighter flights on a weekly basis. It is also the ground handler for cargo airlines such as Thai Airways, Korean Air, Lufthansa, China Airlines, EVA Air, Singapore Airlines, KLM, Aseana and China Southern.

When met at a dialogue session-cum-Buka Puasa function for Penang freight forwarders and media, MASkargo Managing Director, Shahari Sulaiman, said that the implementation of the ASEAN air traffic liberalization will allow MASkargo to operate to various parts of the ASEAN region and improve its market reach. This augurs well with the arrival of its new A300-600 freighter early this month. There will be opportunities to also operate this airplane through Penang.

According to Shahari, the additional aircraft will add an additional 7 percent cargo capacity into the whole MASkargo freighter network. The projected incremental revenue to the whole network will be in excess of RM100mil.

In aligning its business with the Group’s Business Turnaround Plan 2 (BTP2), Shahari said that this smaller capacity aircraft will be useful for seasonal cargo and is positive that it can improve its network and products to serve its customers better.

"Putting all these initiatives in place, *MASkargo, which in 2007 is ranked number 21 in the world, hopes to grow to being one of the top 20 cargo airlines this year," said Shahari.

*Data based on September 2008 issue of Air Cargo World Magazine


About MASkargo

Malaysia Airlines Cargo Sdn Bhd (MASkargo), the air cargo division of Malaysia Airlines, operates four B747-200 and two B747-400 freighters covering the world's major cargo hubs. It also offers belly space capacity on Malaysia Airlines passenger fleet serving almost 100 destinations worldwide.

At KLIA, its home base is the Advanced Cargo Centre, a 108-acre complex designed specially for MASkargo's sophisticated state-of-the-art cargo handling facilities and recognized as major regional cargo hub.

Malaysia Airlines Cargo was selected to host the Air Cargo Forum, the largest air cargo industry gathering in the world in 2008 after winning the bid against Singapore, Abu Dhabi, Osaka and Melbourne. The event will be held in Kuala Lumpur from 4 to 6 November 2008 and is expected to be attended by some 5,000 senior executives from various airlines, freight forwarders, shippers, airport management, ground handling agents, trucking companies, technology and equipment providers and the media.

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