Malindo Air had taken flight last Friday with its maiden voyage from Kuala Lumpur to Kota Kinabalu.

The airline, which is a 51:49 joint-venture between Malaysia’s National Defence & Aerospace Industries Sdn Bhd (Nadi) and Indonesia’s Lion Air, will be the third airline to operate out of Malaysia.

Slated as a low-cost carrier, Malindo is hoping to shake up the airline industry by offering the cheap rates of a budget airline, together with the comforts of a full-service carrier.

CIMB analyst Raymond Yap had been on that maiden flight along with his colleague, Calvin Yew.

The former had found the newest addition to Malaysia’s skies an impressive operation with the capability of causing difficulties for the established players.

“This is possibly the best short-haul flight on offer in Malaysia right now,” they said in a report detailing their experience on the Malindo flight and analysing the airlines prospects.

At present, Malindo is offering passengers extremely attractive promotional airfares to travel on its two initial routes - KL to Kota Kinabalu and KL to Kuching.

An economy ticket to Kuching currently costs just RM38 one-way, whereas one to Kota Kinabalu costs around RM68. A business class ticket, on the other hand, is around RM588 one-way.

Malindo hopes to use these rates to draw customers away from its competitors and onto its planes.

Go to KiniBiz for more .