Rayani Air

Updated on Oct 19, 2023

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RKT RAYANI Destinations 6 Founded 19 January 2015 Headquarters Shah Alam		Commenced operations 20 December 2015 Parent company Rayani Air Sdn Bhd Ceased operations April 9, 2016 Fleet size 2

Hubs Kuala Lumpur International Airport Company slogan Let's fly (Malay: Jom Terbang) Founders Ravi Alagendrran, Dato Karthiyani Govindan Hub Kuala Lumpur International Airport

Malaysia s new islamic airline rayani air takes off with a prayer

Rayani Air Sdn. Bhd. (Jawi:rayané 'ayr راياني أير) was a full service airline in Malaysia, headquartered in Shah Alam, Selangor, in the Kuala Lumpur metropolitan area. It was the first Sharia-Compliant airline in Malaysia and the fourth such airline in the world, after Royal Brunei Airlines (RBA), Saudi Arabian Airlines and Iran Air. No alcoholic beverages or pork were served on board in accordance with Islamic dietary laws and prayers were recited before every flight.

Rayani air makes first landing at kuching international airport

History

Rayani Air was founded by Ravi Alagendrran and his wife Karthiyani Govindan, both of whom are Malaysians of ethnic Indian descent. The name Rayani is said to be mashup of the first names of the founders.

Rayani Airlines was originally intended to be based at Malacca International Airport somewhere in late Q4 2014 with its inaugural flight to take place in August. However the airline changed its base to Langkawi International Airport to attract tourists to the resort island. It was previously rumoured that Rayani Air would be launched as a Low Cost Carrier; however the airline officially positioned itself as a Full Service Carrier in December 2015.

On 20 December 2015, the airline's inaugural flight to Langkawi (RN600) took off smoothly.

The airline was planning to co-operate with Royal Brunei Airlines to strengthen the Sharia-compliant airline concept within the aviation industry.

On 9 April 2016, Rayani Air temporarily suspended all operations until further notice, citing 'restructuring exercises' on the announcement made by its co-founder.

Malaysian Aviation Commission (Mavcom) in a statement on 13 June 2016, announced that Rayani Air licence has been revoked, citing 'it had breached the conditions of its licence and it also lacks the financial and management capacity to continue operating as a commercial airline'.

Destinations

Rayani Air's travel destinations were as follows

Langkawi - Langkawi International Airport

Kota Bharu - Sultan Ismail Petra Airport

Kuala Lumpur - Kuala Lumpur International Airport Hub

Kota Kinabalu - Kota Kinabalu International Airport

Kuching - Kuching International Airport

Fleet

Rayani Air fleet as in February 2016 as follows:

Accidents and incidents

On 9 February 2016, Rayani Air flight RN180 scheduled for Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 was cancelled due to a broken cockpit windshield. The next day, the airline issued a press statement apologising for the flight cancellation, and attributed the shattered windshield to a night flight previously. Rayani Air said they were investigating to see if the broken windshield was an act of sabotage, and would liaise with relevant authorities to deal with this.

In March 2016, Rayani Air was plagued with numerous issues and complaints. Passengers complained that the airline frequently rescheduled flights, often up to 13 hours later. The airline also frequently cancelled flights without advance notice and without compensation or assistance to affected passengers. The consumer complaints were highlighted in several media outlets. It was reported that pilots refused to fly due to aircraft's poor condition.

Politician Lau Weng San has criticised the airline for using handwritten boarding passes, which poses a security threat to aviation industry. This led the Minister of Transport, Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai, state that the airline will be investigated and suspended if necessary. On 11 April 2016, Rayani Air was officially suspended for 3 months.

References

Rayani Air Wikipedia

(Text) CC BY-SA