In a phone interview Thursday, Ngiraingas disclosed that two airline companies from Malaysia have made known recently their interest in servicing the Palau air route.
Ngiraingas identified the two air carriers as the Malaysia Airlines (MAS) and AirAsia.
“These two companies are looking into ferrying tourists and other passengers to and from Palau. MAS wants to provide flights from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Palau, while AirAsia is interested to fly to Palau from Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia,” he pointed out.
Earlier, airline companies from Australia and Abu Dhabi have also expressed their interest in providing flights to Palau.
Ngiraingas revealed that representatives from Malaysia Airlines have visited Palau for initial talks prior to their submitting an application for a permit to operate flights to and from the island republic.
“We have preliminary discussions with those people and they said that they are strongly leaning towards starting direct flights from Malaysia to Palau sometime next year,” he pointed out.
“But there have been no specifics as far as the schedule of flights, number of flights, aircraft to be used, among other things.We are expecting them to visit us again in the coming months to discuss those things,” the official added.
Malaysia Airlines is the government-owned flag carrier of Malaysia. Malaysia Airlines operates flights from its home base, Kuala Lumpur International Airport, and its secondary hub in Kota Kinabalu. It has its headquarters on the grounds of Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport in Subang, Selangor.
As for Air Asia, Ngiraingas revealed that an official with ties to the airline company told him that the AirAsia is also interested in servicing the Palau air route.
“I have never met any of their representatives, but an official close to the company informed me that Air Asia is also eyeing to provide flights from Malaysia to Palau,” he disclosed.
AirAsia is a Malaysian low-cost airline. It operates scheduled domestic and international flights and is Asia’s largest low-fare, no-frills airline. AirAsia is a pioneer of low-cost flights in Asia, and was also the first airline in the region to implement fully ticketless travel. Its main base is the Low-Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT) at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA).
Ngiraingas said that the government of Palau welcomes the possible entry of the two airline companies.
“We have been encouraging airline companies from abroad to service the Palau route so that more tourists will come to this place. The more the better,” he said.
Palau’s main industry and one of its biggest sources of revenues is tourism. The possible entry of the two Malaysian air carriers could bring in several thousand more tourists.
Currently, there are seven airline companies that service the Palau air route
These are Continental Airlines, Korean Air, Pacific Flier, Japan Air Lines, China Airlines and two other air carriers based in Taiwan and Hong Kong.
Of those seven air carriers, only Continental Airlines fly regularly scheduled flights to and from Palau. The rest offer charter flights.
