Malaysian airlines plans regional airfare give-away

National carrier Malaysian Airlines (MAS) Wednesday announced it would give-away airfares to 20 regional destinations as part of a plan to fill 4.0 million seats that go empty annually.
"We are not losing any revenue from this as the seats represent 30 percent surplus seats which would otherwise be unsold," MAS managing director Idris Jala said.
"This provides us with the ability to recover some of the fuel costs which would otherwise be lost," he added.
Although passengers do not pay any fares, they will have to fork out hefty administrative taxes and fuel surcharges, which will go to the airline, as well as airport taxes levied by the government, industry experts said.
The airline would make money from the surcharges and taxes that accompany normally priced tickets, they said.
MAS said they were offering 1.0 million zero fare seats to all 10 countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the Chinese cities of Hong Kong and Guangzhou but passengers would pay extra for travel to Singapore and the Indonesian island resort of Bali.
The deals came a week after the airline announced a similar offer for domestic flights. The airline said it sold 150,000 out of the 1.0 million local seats on offer.
MAS has been criticised by Malaysia's first low-cost carrier AirAsia for copying the budget carrier's everyday low fares policy.
In January, MAS unveiled ambitious targets, saying net profit could hit 1.5 billion ringgit (457 million dollars) in five years as it enters a new growth phase.
Last year, it booked a record profit of 851 million ringgit reversing losses in 2006 after sweeping reforms.