Malaysia Airlines today launched a series of cheap domestic holiday packages to revitalise tourism and counter a fear of air travel due to the Sars outbreak.

The company is offering 35 to 40 percent discounts for 22 packages, said sales and marketing senior manager Ahmad Fuaad Dahlan.

The "Golden Holidays, Great Getaways" campaign, to run until Aug 31, is a short-term tactical measure to boost confidence and counter the negative effect of Sars, he told reporters.

"We want to stimulate the market and steer consumers back to the light at the end of the tunnel," he said.

Ahmad Fuaad said the national carrier believed that the worst appeared to be over from the Sars epidemic.

Flights reinstated

Passenger load factor for domestic flights has climbed to an average 60 percent this month from 50 percent in May and is expected to return to the pre-Sars level of more than 70 percent with the campaign, he said.

For international flights, average load factor has improved to around 60 percent, up from 40 percent during the last few months, with a "turnaround in flights from Australia and Europe," he said.

Tourism Minister Abdul Kadir Sheikh Fadzir, launching the campaign, said concerns over Sars appeared to have abated with a recovery in tourist arrivals, especially from the Middle East, to Malaysia.

Abdul Kadir, who yesterday met with representatives from seven Gulf-based airlines, said they would reinstate flights to Malaysia next month as confidence improved following the government's strong promotional efforts to allay fears over the Sars outbreak.

Several carriers, including Saudi Arabian Airlines, would increase flight frequencies during the holiday season from mid-June, he said.

War mode

It is uncertain if Malaysia can achieve its target of 13.56 million tourists this year but Abdul Kadir said the ministry would "work very hard."

"We have put ourself in a war mode. We have lost tremendously in the last three to four months but if we work very hard as a team, in the second half of the year we can recover our losses," he said.

"It is high time now for us all to decide that we are not going to be held ransom anymore by this virus. Let us put this Sars thing behind us."

The Malaysia Airlines campaign comes o­n top of a supersaver program since last August that cuts domestic fares by half for an average 14,000 economy-class seats each week.

Ahmad Fuaad said the new campaign would double domestic tickets o­n offer to about 30,000 per week. The carrier will mount 67 extra flights next month to cater for the school holidays.

He said Malaysia Airlines would reorganise its flights to focus o­n markets in the Middle East, Australia, Europe and Japan. It aims to have direct flights from Europe to the Langkawi and Penang islands north of Kuala Lumpur to woo holiday seekers, he added.

Malaysia has listed o­nly five probable Sars cases including two deaths but the epidemic had wreaked havoc o­n the tourism industry, the country's second top foreign exchange earner.

The government has set up a RM1 billion relief fund and provided tax breaks to help the sector under an economic stimulus package unveiled last week. AFP