Malaysia Airlines said today it would offer discounts of between 30 and 50 percent o­n a range of international tickets to encourage people to travel despite fears of a war in Iraq.

The national carrier said it expected to rake in between RM50 and RM75 million in ticket sales at a three-day travel and tourism fair starting Friday.

"This is damage control for us," the airline's regional assistant general manager Rashid Khan told a news conference.

"People are hesitant to buy now because of fears of war but we are hoping that they would look at other options.

"If they don't want to go to Europe, they have the choice of going to China, Korea, Australia or New Zealand and not postpone travel just because of an impending war."

Traveling within Asia

The cheap tickets are being offered for travel during the traditional low-peak season between March 17 and July 31.

Rashid said between 15 and 20 percent of seat capacity o­n daily routes to various destinations had been allocated for the promotional fares, putting hundreds of thousands of seats o­n offer.

Rashid said routes to the Middle East and Europe would be most hit by a war in Iraq, but that the airline expected travel within Asia, which contributes more than half of its revenue, to help offset any negative trend.

From April, Malaysia Airlines is to increase flights to Shanghai and Australia from o­nce a day to twice daily.

Flights to Paris are also to be doubled to six per week from April and raised to seven per week from July. Bigger aircraft with an extra 30 percent seating capacity are to be used for flights to Saudi Arabia and Armsterdam.

"We want to have a minimum daily flights to Europe and double daily flights to China and other routes. For short-radius flights like Asean, we want to go four times daily. That is our strategy," he said.

The fair, organised by the Malaysian Air Travel and Tourism Association, is held in March and October every year to boost tourism, the country's second largest foreign exchange earner. AFP