The study team has researched the current economic climate in both Asia and Asia Minor with the objective of assessing the feasibility of establishing a new airline connection between Malaysia and Turkey.

A private airline, AirX, has expressed an interest in establishing a connection between Kuala Lumpur and Istanbul which would, in turn, interconnect with existing flight connections to various Turkish and Middle-Eastern destinations.

The study group undertook a review of the economics of the tourism industry in both countries resulting in the following findings and recommendations summarized here.

Findings and Recommendations

Turkey is a 99% Muslim country with a culture compatible with Malaysia.

Turkey has a very well developed tourism industry and the industry accounts for almost 25% of all foreign exchange earnings of that country.

The tourism industry in Malaysia is still being developed.  There is considerable scope for the industry to develop further and generate foreign exchange earnings well above the current level of contribution to foreign exchange earnings of 5%.

Turkey has a population of 60 million and an economy as yet unscathed by Asian economic turmoil.  GDP is currently growing at more that 2% per annum and, furthermore, is currently in the process of joining the European Common Market.

Market research on pilgrims performing the Umrah suggests that this market segment constitute considerable potential demand for AirX’s proposed airline connection.  It is noted that AirX already has links with existing flights to and from Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.

It is expected that there would be potential demand from Malaysian Christian pilgrims to Christian historical sites in Turkey.

A third market segment was identified, namely customers interested in Turkish
 

Health spars such as Pamukkale and Sivas

If the AirX proposal proceeds, Malaysia could expect to see a flow of tourists from Turkey.  The study group reviewed the tourism offerings of Malaysia, which might be expected to appeal to segments of the Turkish market.  The most promising Malaysian destinations of interest to Turks are likely to be:

Destination 1
Destination 2
Destination 3

Another potential market segment is the business traveler.  Amongst the business ventures of Turkish companies in Malaysia is a company supplying fibre-optic cables to support communications in Malaysia?  Other examples of Turkish and Malaysian businesses doing business in each other’s counties are:

Business 1
Business 2
Business 3

The study group recommends that the proposed AirX connection between Istanbul and Kuala Lumpur be established to include both code-sharing flight arrangements as well as new flights.