Penerbangan Malaysia Berhad

PENERBANGAN MALAYSIA BERHAD (PMB) TAKES DELIVERY B747- 400 FREIGHTER

20 March, 2006 - Penerbangan Malaysia Berhad (PMB), the holding company of Malaysia Airlines (MAS) took delivery of its first Boeing 747-400 freighter aircraft in Seattle, United States of America at 8 a.m. corresponding to 10 p.m. today, Malaysian time.

The official handing over of the aircraft was held at Boeing’s Commercial Airplanes Delivery Centre in Everett, Seattle, following the signature of documents by representatives from both PMB and Boeing. Nasution Mohamed, Managing Director/CEO of PMB signed on behalf of the company, while Boeing was represented by David J. Hilby, its Regional Director, Aircraft Contracts. The event was witnessed by Dato’ JJ Ong, Senior General Manager, Cargo, Malaysia Airlines and officials from both PMB and MAS.

The aircraft will be leased by PMB to MAS. The addition of the new freighter to MAS’ existing fleet is expected to boost the airline’s cargo business aggressive drive to provide additional capacity to key markets.

MASkargo’s Ong said, with the new aircraft the company will now be able to operate triangular flights now such as Kuala Lumpur – Dubai - Amsterdam and related sectors, which will result in savings in landing costs.

"In all, we expect to cut costs, have higher capacity as well as a high rotation when we roll out the aircraft this year," he said.