A new airline is about to be launched by the Malaysia government to connect the Malaysia peninsula with other parts of south east Asia.
It revealed today that it has signed a deal to buy 20 Bombardier CS100 aicraft, with 125 seats each, to fly from Kota Kinabalu on the island of Borneo, a popular destination for adventure tourism, and from Johor Bahru in the south. It has options to buy a further 20 aircraft.
The new airline, to be called flymojo, is expected to start operating in October this year.
Its launch, announced at the Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace Exhibition (LIMA), comes a year after state-controlled Malaysia Airlines was hit by two disasters: the disappearance of flights MH370 en route to Beijing and the gunning down of flight MH17 over Ukraine.
Another Malaysian airline, AirAsia, crashed into the Indian Ocean during a flight to Singapore last December.
Speaking at the launch, Malaysia deputy minister of transport Aziz Kaprawi said: “The announcement of a new airline in Malaysia is an exciting way to kick off LIMA.
“With flymojo’s primary hub at Senai International Airport, Johor and secondary hub in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, the airline’s ultra-modern fleet of CS100 aircraft will play a key role in improving connectivity between the Peninsula and Sabah and Sarawak, as well as other parts of the region.
“In addition, as the only airline utilizing the Southern Corridor as its headquarters, flymojo will transform Senai into a key regional aviation and logistics hub – augmenting the government’s initiatives in developing Iskandar Malaysia and the Southern Corridor. Further strengthening Kota Kinabalu’s standing as a gateway into Malaysia, flymojo will also boost tourism into Sabah and Sarawak
