(AFP) All Nippon Airways (ANA) today announced that it would resume flights to Malaysia this month, four months after halting them, following a personal plea from the government.

Japan's second biggest airline, which suspended flights between Kuala Lumpur and Osaka in March following losses, will from July 23 fly three times a week between Tokyo and Kuala Lumpur via Bangkok using Boeing 777-200 aircraft.

Local general manager Tsutomu Ota said ANA would start direct flights between Tokyo and Kuala Lumpur next May once the second runway at Tokyo's Narita airport becomes operational.

"We are thinking of one flight daily," he told reporters, adding that the thrice-weekly service would then terminate in Bangkok.

The announcement is a boost for the futuristic Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA).

Since KLIA opened in June 1998, Aeroflot, British Airways, Qantas and Lufthansa have scrapped flights to it for commercial reasons -- dealing a blow to efforts to promote the RM9 billion airport as a regional hub.

"There are 12,000 Japanese living in Malaysia," Ota said.

"Business ties are close. Can we neglect this market? Our return is purely economics and we were also moved by Malaysia's attempt to promote KLIA."

Moved by plea

Ota said a "key person" in the transport ministry, whom he did not identify, called him and urged ANA to continue to do business in Malaysia.

"They actually came to us," he said.

ANA's corporate office in Japan was moved by Malaysia's request and decided to return, Ota said.

Ota said the Tokyo-Bangkok-Kuala Lumpur route looked promising since there were 30,000 Japanese living in Bangkok.

But he said airlines considered the Kuala Lumpur route as one with the lowest yields following the effective devaluation of the ringgit against the dollar.

The ringgit is now pegged at RM3.80 to the dollar against RM2.50 before the 1997/98 East Asian financial crisis.

"I don't think air fares have been adjusted. To do business in Malaysia is a big difficulty for airlines," Ota said.