By Muin Abdul Majid

DUBAI, Oct 15 (Bernama) -- Malaysia Airlines is studying the possibility of adding at least three new Middle Eastern destinations to its network, said regional general manager for Middle East and Africa, Merina Abu Tahir.

She said the national carrier viewed the Middle East as a region showing big potential for growth.

"The Middle East is definitely an area that Malaysia Airlines would want to concentrate on. We're eyeing at least three new destinations," Merina told Bernama here but declined to name the prospective cities.

She said for a start, the award-winning airline would begin thrice-weekly direct flights between Kuala Lumpur and Istanbul on Oct 25.

At the moment, the service to the Turkish city is via Dubai.

Merina said delinking Dubai from Istanbul would increase the airline's capacity for Dubai as well as Istanbul.

"That's the first step in our growth (plans) in the Middle East, and going forward we're looking for more areas to grow in this region," she added.

Malaysia Airlines operates non-stop flights between Dubai and Kuala Lumpur five times a week, and via Karachi twice a week.

It also offers three weekly flights between Dubai and Beirut, and four weekly flights between Jeddah and Kuala Lumpur.

The airline also has code-share flights from Abu Dhabi, Cairo, Bahrain, Doha and Muscat to Kuala Lumpur.

-- BERNAMA