Hybrid carrier Malindo Air will add six new routes to India this year, giving the 10-month- old airline up to a 25 per cent control of the Malaysia-India market.

The airline, established in March last year, currently flies to New Delhi and Trichy and has a less than eight per cent share of the market.

Malindo is increasing capacity to South India because of passenger demand and also to bring tourists here in conjunction with Visit Malaysia Year, said its chief executive officer Chandran Ramamuthy.

A million origin-destination passengers travel between India and Malaysia annually on non-stop services.

Chandran told Business Times the airline will launch a flight to Mumbai on February 15 and Ahmedabad by March 19.

By June or July, the Lion Air Group affiliate will fly to Cochin.

Chandran said Malindo will also fly directly to Pondicherry between July and November.

He said by December, it will add either Madurai or Coimbatore in the south, and Amritsar or Pune in the north to its network.

"We are considering Coimbatore as it is close to Kerala and we can capture a larger market there. We have approval to fly to all these places except for Madurai. which is pending," he said.

Chandran said new destinations next year will include Visakhapatnam and Hyderabad.

"We have approval to fly to Hyderabad but it would depend on demand. We are studying the potential," he said.

Malindo, with its aggressive plans for India, could give tough competition to Malaysia Airlines and AirAsia, two strong players in the sector.

The Kuala Lumpur-Delhi and Kuala Lumpur-Mumbai routes are currently served by MAS while AirAsia is a major player for the Kuala Lumpur-Trichy sector.

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