Malaysia-based Raya Airways has announced its plans to launch two new cargo destinations – Jakarta and Hanoi – by early February 2016 and plans to add five more freighters by Q3 this year. The airline plans to fly three times per week to the two destinations with its B757-200 Freighter which has a capacity of around 32 tonnes of cargo per flight.  The all-cargo carrier currently covers mainly East and West Malaysia, together with Singapore.

The Vietnamese capital of Hanoi was chosen because it is well-connected to other countries in Asia and the airport facilities are able to support the complex flight networks, the carrier said. Jakarta, on the other hand is also a key Southeast Asian airport it noted.

Raya Airways commercial director, Lee Shashitheren said: “2016 will bear witness of Raya Airways’ growth, translated through the exercise of fleet expansion and introduction of new destinations.  By 3rd Quarter of 2016, we would have three new B767-200F and two new B757-200F aircraft.

“The fleet expansion is a very good sign that our services are highly-sought after and we have to increase the number of aircrafts to cater for the demand by our customers.”

Moving forward, in 2016 Raya Airways hopes to achieve a total of 11 destinations while keeping its eyes open for further destinations, it said.

Raya Airways Sdn Bhd is the restructured entity of the former Transmile Air Services Sdn Bhd (TAS), formerly a wholly-owned subsidiary of Transmile Group. Raya Airways is embarking on a re-fleeting exercise to obtain newer and more fuel efficient aircraft and hopes to triple the volume of cargo carried annually from 30,000 tonnes to 100,000 tonnes in the next five years.