This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on March 23, 2016.

SEPANG: Malaysia Airlines Bhd carried 22% more passengers from China so far this year, compared to the same period last year, an indication that confidence in the airline is gradually being restored.

“We believe the worst is over. For example, China — our customers [from the country] are up 22% this year from last year. So we are seeing [that] the market [traction] is coming back,” the carrier’s head of marketing Charles McKee told pressmen after the launch of the new business class seats for its Airbus A330-300 fleet yesterday.

“I think it is [attributable to] the professionalism, the safety consciousness, [and] the long and very positive operating history of this brand. Those are things no one will ever be able to take away,” he added.

The airline, which saw its flight MH17 shot down over Ukraine in 2014 — killing 283 passengers — just months after its flight MH370 that was carrying 239 people disappeared somewhere over the Indian Ocean, has been trying to woo back passengers since the twin disasters.

Though McKee did not disclose the exact number of passengers from China that Malaysia Airlines has carried so far this year, he also attributed the increase to user experience. Hence, Malaysia Airlines will invest more resources to enhance its premium products.

Apart from introducing the new business class seats, Malaysia Airlines will refurbish its lounges and improve its in-flight catering, said McKee.

“What we are absolutely sure of is that with this significant investment, as we improve our product quality, our ability to attract more and new business travellers is much higher. So this is a very strong return-on-investment strategy that we are embarking on,” McKee said.

The newly configured A330-300 will have 27 business class seats and 263 economy class seats. The airline has 15 A330-300 aircraft and all 15 planes will be equipped with the new business class seats by September this year.

The new business class seats will be available from today, starting with the airline’s Kuala Lumpur to Sydney, Australia (KL-Australia) route, followed by its KL-New Zealand, KL-Japan, KL-Korea, KL-China and KL-India routes.

“Whenever you put a better product, you get more people to buy. We believe, in terms of industry benchmark, this is a leading product,” said Malaysia Airlines chief commercial officer Paul Simmons, who was also present at the launch.

The new business class seats, at a width of 20 inches (50.8cm) and a length of 76 inches when fully flat, come with increased working space with 90% of all seats having direct aisle access due to the 1-2-1 and 1-2-2 seat layouts, with extra stowage space for personal items. Each seat is equipped with a 16-inch touchscreen in-flight entertainment system.