Qatar Airways has reinstated Penang Airport (PEN) to its network earlier this month and has added more than 70 tonnes of weekly belly-hold capacity into and out of Malaysia.

The airline will offer air freight capacity to Malaysia’s second busiest cargo airport four times a week through its A330 passenger flights to Phuket.

This adds more than 70 tonnes of available capacity each week, which will feed into the carrier’s extensive international cargo network via its state-of-the-art Doha hub.

Guillaume Halleux, cargo chief at Qatar, said: “Our network planning team saw a perfect opportunity in the passenger A330 flight’s ground-time in Phuket, and have worked hard to establish a well-scheduled, interim passenger-freighter connection to Penang and back to maximise the cargo capacity into and out of Malaysia’s second-busiest cargo airport.

“This Next Generation-style multi-modal strategy sees Qatar Airways’ Doha-Phuket passenger connection becoming a Phuket-Penang-Phuket passenger-freighter for four days of the week, before returning to Doha again as a passenger service with lower deck cargo.”

Penang is the largest export contributing state within Malaysia, with mostly electronics/electrical equipment, general cargo and vulnerable cargo being sent by air, Qatar Airways noted, stating that the destination is open for all commodity types, with the exception of mail.

The new service complements Qatar Airways’ existing seven weekly flights to Kuala Lumpur, offering over 200 tonnes of cargo capacity from Malaysia.