KUALA LUMPUR: Batik Air Malaysia, a unit of Indonesia's Lion Air Group, is the first airline in the country to fully restore its fleet since last year.
In fact it is among the few airlines worldwide to have started running on full capacity post-Covid-19, as most fleets are still undergoing maintenance due to long-term parking during the global lockdown.
Lion Group group strategic director Datuk Chandran Rama Muthy said the recipe for its success is due to its own maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) centres that were operating even during the pandemic.
"During (the) Covid-19 (period), we didn't close down our MRO centre. They were running, preparing for opening (of the border). Eventually when it (the border) opened, we were quick enough to rebound. That was key," he told Business Times in an exclusive interview recently.
Having a pool of workforce, where most were furloughed, also contributed to Batik Air's speedy recovery as most of the pilots and cabin crew were sent for training once the announcement of border reopening was made.
Chandran said only a handful of airlines such as Qatar Airways, Singapore Airlines and Emirates could bounce back quickly after the pandemic.
Given the limited supply amid rising demand in travel, airfares have gone up since the lockdown.
Chandran however believes airfares are already on a downtrend, with airlines adding more frequencies on their routes.
"The airfares (have) already come down. Today if you do a search on Google Flights Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok for example, (most) flights are priced around RM300. When we just started opening right after Covid-19 (lockdown), the flight was almost RM1,000.
"Today airfares are very competitive. Today the winner will be who has got the best cost structure," Chandran said, adding that the hunger for travel remains.
He projected that heightened travel demand will continue over the next one or two years.
Batik Air itself has seen demand surpass its 2019 level as it carried 5.9 million passengers from January to August this year.
In 2019, Batik Air carried 7.2 million total passengers, excluding Lion Air Group of airlines' passenger numbers.
This year, Chandran expects Batik Air to carry up to 8.5 million passengers.
Speaking on Batik Air's rapid international network expansion, Chandran said the airline is reopening the routes that it used to fly to before the Covid-19 pandemic hit the aviation industry.
"We've experienced opening up many destinations even before Covid-19. We flew to almost 57 destinations, 20 countries. Now it's just a matter of reopening the routes because we never shut down (the routes) permanently.
"Likewise, I see other airlines are also very aggressive (in expanding their international routes). In airline business, you cannot be slow. You've got to run fast," said Chandran, who has over two decades of experience in the aviation industry.