Tag Archives: Malaysia Airlines

Malaysia Airlines Celebrates 35 Years of Frequent Flyer Programme

Enrich, Malaysia Airlines’ award-winning Travel and Lifestyle Loyalty programme, celebrates its 35th anniversary with a special campaign that allows members to earn Bonus Points for flights and hotel stays as well as Bonus Elite Points for them to retain or fast-track their tier status.

From 3 until 5 November 2022, members can earn 3X Elite Points and 3X Bonus Points when booking all Malaysia Airlines’ international or domestic flights. Meanwhile, members can earn Bonus Points from 3 November until 3 December 2022, when they book a stay via enrichhotels.com at any of its 400,000 properties worldwide for travel between 3 November 2022 to 12 April 2023.

With all the additional Enrich Points earned, members can either redeem flights or spend their Points on an extensive range of experiences available on Enrich’s vibrant redemption catalogue such as top- rated hotel experiential dining, healthcare checks and wellness treatments, holiday shopping styles from lifestyle partners, or even making e-donations to seven (7) charitable organisations including Make-A-Wish Malaysia, Malaysian Red Crescent Society and MERCY Malaysia.

Members can also take advantage of the 3X Elite Points to retain or upgrade their status and continue to enjoy all their Elite Privileges such as access to Malaysia Airlines’ Golden Lounges, priority check-in, priority boarding and more. Enrich Elite members are recognised across all oneworld Alliance member airlines with their coveted oneworld Priority tier.

Commenting on this, Lau Yin May, Group Chief Marketing and Customer Experience Officer, Malaysia Airlines, said, “In conjunction with Enrich’s 35th anniversary, we are delighted to launch a special campaign to appreciate our members for their unwavering support over the years. Over the past three decades, the frequent flyer programme of Malaysia Airlines, formerly known as Esteemed Traveller, has evolved into a holistic travel and lifestyle programme to enhance the experience of over 4 million registered members worldwide with benefits beyond just collecting points while travelling but also in day-to-day activities such as bank credit card conversions, hotel stays, and retail spending with a variety of lifestyle partners.”

Malaysia Airlines expands agreement with Sabre relationship for full suite of optimisation products

Malaysia Airlines has expanded its agreement with Sabre Corporation to enable the carrier to enhance its network planning and optimise the former’s technology as it continues to ramp up operations.

The Kuala Lumpur-based carrier and Sabre have a successful, valued, long-standing relationship, having worked together for more than two decades. This latest agreement supports Malaysia Airlines’ efforts to deliver robust schedules that are operationally feasible and profitable. It will use Sabre’s network planning and optimisation products for critical decision support to help it to forecast schedule profitability, match capacity and demand, and improve aircraft utilisation and network connectivity.

“With industry recovery progressing well, we’re firmly focused on providing optimum routes whilst ensuring the integrity of our flight schedules,” said Bryan Foong, Group Chief Strategy Officer, Malaysia Airlines. “As such, we’re thrilled to further cement our relationship with Sabre by selecting a full suite of network planning and scheduling solutions that will help the airline in designing the right schedules and deploying the right aircraft on the right route and time to maximize revenue opportunities, optimize costs and meet high traveller demand.”

Malaysia Airlines flies an extensive route network spanning across Asia Pacific, Middle East and the UK. With travel restrictions having eased in Malaysia earlier this year, bookings immediately surged for both inbound and outbound travel. The carrier is now firmly focused on longer-term plans including launching new routes, expanding codeshare partnerships, replacing aircraft and exploring sustainable aviation fuel options. In a further sign of the recovering premium travel sector, the airline has also re-opened its three Golden Lounges at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

The carrier has selected a full suite of Sabre scheduling solutions, made up of:

Schedule Manager which enables the creation of scheduling scenarios, schedule edits, optimization of aircraft utilization, creation of connecting banks and checking for feasibility violations, to build commercially viable and operationally feasible schedules.

Fleet Manager which helps optimize fleet management decisions, assigning the most appropriate aircraft type to each flight leg to minimize spoilage and spill, reducing costs and helping to maximize profitability.

Profit Manager which uses complex algorithms and multiple passenger choice modelling to evaluate market share, forecast load factors, and analyze partnerships and alliances, helping to forecast revenue and network profitability.

Codeshare Manager which helps the airline manage codeshare agreements with partner airlines and evaluate potential codeshare connects to maximize revenue. It allows for private what-if analysis, independent of partner airlines to evaluate the value of each partnership.

Slot Manager which is a comprehensive slot management solution allowing airlines to manage slot portfolios, automating the slot messaging process to avoid manual messaging and help ensure schedule and slots are in sync to avoid penalties and loss of historic slots.

Malaysia Airlines Introduces MHPay to fulfill evolving business and customer needs

Malaysia Airlines introduces MHPay, a new alternative payment method for consumers to purchase air tickets, ancillary products, and services via malaysiaairlines.com. MHPay is designed to complement the airline’s entire array of digitalized payment methods which aims to enhance its customers’ experience by providing greater access to all payment options through a single integration point.

In collaboration with the International Air Transport Association (IATA) through IATApay and powered by 2C2P, the full-suite payments platform, MHPay offers Malaysia Airlines customers a seamless and secure method of making payments online. Malaysia Airlines is the first airline in Southeast Asia to adopt IATAPay and has successfully rolled out the alternative payment method.

Commenting on this, Lau Yin May, Group Chief Marketing and Customers Experience, Malaysia Airlines, said, “We are thrilled to launch MHPay as a testimony to our digitization initiatives while we continue innovating to fulfil evolving business and customer needs and respond to the rise of digitally savvy consumers. Customers will benefit from MHPay as it offers a fast and secure way to purchase real-time airline tickets online as well as through our mobile app, with no additional service fees.”

He also added, “This reinforces our commitment to enhancing the customer experience, and we intend to expand more networks in the near future. As travel demand rises, we encourage travellers to take advantage of this opportunity to visit new places and Fly Confidently with Malaysia Airlines, as we have implemented stringent health and safety procedures both on-ground and in-flight to ensure that travellers have a rewarding experience with Malaysian Hospitality.”

In the first phase, customers in India will be able to use MHPay through a preferred online bank and benefit from more convenient and secure digital payment solutions as it offers a real-time payment option that uses UPI rails with more than 90% retailing banks from the respective market that supports account-to-account payments without using a credit or debit card at no service fee charge. In addition, MHPay offers a cost-effective payment alternative with a quick transaction time of less than a minute for end-to-end flow, depending on the connectivity which also has proven lowered payment fraud cases to further enhance the payment security which is a high priority of the airlines.

Malaysia Airlines to operate second daily flight to Doha from Aug 10

Malaysia Airlines is set to double its capacity between Kuala Lumpur and Doha with a second daily non-stop flight commencing August 10, 2022, in response to high passenger demand on this route.

The additional daily service will depart from Kuala Lumpur at 2:55am via MH164 and from Doha at 8:05am via MH165. It is in addition to the existing daily services MH160 departing Kuala Lumpur at 9:20pm and MH161 departing Doha at 1:30am, bringing the number of Malaysia Airlines flights to Doha to 14 flights weekly.

The twice-daily flights will be operated by the A330-300 aircraft with 27 state-of-the-art seats in Business Class, 16 seats in Economy with extra legroom, and 247 seats in Economy Class. The additional daily service will be opened for sale from 25 July and will include Qatar Airways codeshare in both directions.

This additional service strengthens Malaysia Airlines and Qatar Airways’ strategic partnership, allowing passengers to travel to over 96 codeshare destinations and enjoying seamless and most convenient connectivity, via the partners’ key hubs in Kuala Lumpur and Doha. The arrival and departure times of the double daily Malaysia Airlines flights offer customers full access to Qatar Airways’ unrivaled network to the Middle East, Europe, Africa and the US via the world’s best airport, Hamad International Airport. While simultaneously building perfect connectivity to Malaysia Airlines’ network to states within Malaysia, as well as South East Asia, North Asia and also to Australasia.

Captain Izham Ismail, Group CEO, Malaysia Airlines, said, “We are delighted to increase our frequency to Doha, after a successful launch of daily service in May. We recognise the importance of collaborating with our partners such as Qatar Airways, more so with travel demand picking up steeply for this route following the easing of borders restrictions.

By doubling our services to Doha and codeshare flights on Qatar Airways, we will be able to extend our signature Malaysian Hospitality offerings to a broader customer base. This latest addition of strategic collaboration with Qatar Airways will allow Malaysia Airlines to achieve passenger capacity of more than 70% of pre-pandemic levels by the end of the year. As a national airline, we will continuously play a significant role in facilitating safe travel through #FlyConfidently initiatives for passengers to travel with peace of mind.”

His Excellency Akbar Al Baker, Group CEO, Qatar Airways, said: “We are delighted with the rapid growth of our strategic alliance with Malaysia Airlines and welcome our partner’s decision to add a second daily non-stop flight to Doha, just a few weeks after the start of their operations between Kuala Lumpur and Doha. This is an impressive example of how our partner airlines can instantly benefit from working with Qatar Airways, both in terms of our growing global route network and our unparalleled service in the air and on the ground at our award-winning airport, Hamad International Airport (HIA).

We are committed to further expanding our strategic cooperation with Malaysia Airlines and to jointly develop Kuala Lumpur International Airport, KLIA, as a leading hub in the South East Asia region in view of the strong rebound in global air travel demand.”

Through a strategic partnership, both partners will further strengthen ties and traffic flow, and improve tourism in both countries. Customers on both airlines will also benefit from the ease of a single ticket, check-in services, boarding, and baggage-check operations, frequent flyer benefits, and access to world-class lounges during the travel.

Malaysia Airlines and Qatar Airways’ strategic partnership evolved progressively beginning 2001 and have significantly expanded the collaborative partnership with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding in February 2022. Together leveraging each other’s network strengths and providing robust access for passengers to travel to new destinations beyond their individual network, and ultimately lead Asia Pacific Travel.

Malaysia Airlines renews pact for 5 years with SITA to improve its global connections

Malaysia Airlines has renewed its partnership with SITA for a comprehensive upgrade that will link its global operations to its hub in Kuala Lumpur with fast, secure, and reliable network connectivity.

As part of the five-year agreement, Malaysia Airlines will leverage SITA Connect, specifically designed for the air transport industry, to meet the airline’s needs in and outside airports. SITA Connect will lower connectivity costs, improve the quality of service, enable ease of access to new features and applications, and facilitate their passengers’ check-in process worldwide, benefiting from SITA’s global presence at over 650 airports across 220 countries and territories.

SITA Connect will also provide network connectivity that allows team members to access central systems from anywhere, supporting the airline’s worldwide operation for employees working remotely. Security was a key factor in selecting SITA’s solution to support the airline’s critical operational systems.

Izham Ismail, Group CEO, Malaysia Airlines, said, “We’re excited to ramp up our operational capabilities as the industry’s recovery takes hold, with the support of our trusted technology partner SITA. Boosting the connectivity, security, and agility of the backbone technologies that support Malaysia Airlines will ensure we are ready for the influx of passengers over the coming months and poised to deliver a seamless travel experience for all”.

Sumesh Patel, APAC President, SITA, said: “SITA has a long history of collaboration with Malaysia Airlines. We’re excited to renew the relationship once more by upgrading several services that will ultimately help deliver a smooth passenger process. Operational efficiency is under the microscope in the wake of the pandemic, and we’re committed to helping the industry recover with smart solutions that are resilient, agile, and cost-effective”.

 

Amit Mehta

‘We are looking at achieving pre-pandemic capacity for India by year end’

Upbeat about the potential of expanding business travel from India, Amit Mehta, Country Manager – South Asia, Malaysia Airlines talks to Disha Shah Ghosh about their India routes, expanding capacity and new partnerships.

Q. Where does India rank in terms of pecking order for Malaysia Airlines?

India has always been a very important market for Malaysia Airlines, and as one of the world’s fastest-growing economy, it has enormous potential. The likes of Malaysia, Australia, and Indonesia are tourism hotspots for the Indian travellers. This apart, the expanding business scene in India has meant rise of the business travellers to and from India.

There is a strong pent-up demand in India to travel again leading us to increase frequencies and upgrading to wide-body aircraft on certain flights/routes. We are expecting closer or short-haul destinations such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and Singapore to see a strong uptick in the next few quarters, among the first-time international leisure travellers. We are also seeing lot of demand coming in for Australia, Indonesia, Singapore and other Asia Pacific destinations on our network from India.

We are bullish for 2022 and are looking at achieving pre-pandemic capacity back for India by end of the year.

Q. What kind of connectivity does Malaysia Airlines offer to the Indian market?

Since 27 March 2022, Malaysia Airlines has reinstated its scheduled commercial services from India and currently operates 29 weekly flights from India from five (5) major cities in India, Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai. In early 2020 we were flying to six (6) destinations (including Kochi) with 60 times weekly flights.

We will be gradually increasing these frequencies by year-end to cater to growing demands and will add new routes when opportunity arises. Current flight frequencies for India are as per below.
• Seven (7) times weekly for MAA and DEL
• Six (6) times weekly for BOM
• Five (5) times weekly for BLR
• Four (4) times weekly for HYD

Q. What is your current load factor on India routes?

Current load factor for the market has been encouraging with up to 70% load factor on these flights and forecasted forward load factor of up to 80% by 2022.

Q. Are you looking at increasing frequencies or adding new routes to India?

We are continuously reviewing the opportunities in the India market and will add new routes, increase frequencies or upgrade aircraft wherever needed to meet these demands. We are looking at achieving pre-pandemic capacity back for India by end of the year.

Q. Are there plans for any new code-share or interline agreements with any carrier?

We have recently entered into code-share agreement with Japan Airlines (JAL). The expanded code-share will further enhance the customer experience on flights, offering more convenient and flexible itineraries.

Starting August 14, 2022, the codeshare will be expanded to Kuala Lumpur – Haneda route with the introduction of JAL codeshare on the flights operated by Malaysia Airlines. Customers from Malaysia, ASEAN, Australasia, and South Asia flying with Malaysia Airlines to Haneda will be able to book and connect to a greater scope of Japanese domestic destinations, including Osaka, Fukuoka, Nagoya, Sapporo, Okinawa and connect further to international destinations within North America.

On top of this, Malaysia Airlines has also embarked on a long-standing partnership with Qatar Airways that has enabled both parties to leverage on each other’s strong global presence and maximise synergies for greater customer convenience. Together, the two oneworld partners bring together seamless connectivity, offering 96 codeshare destinations encompassing Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Middle East, Europe, the United States and Africa, from their key hubs in KUL and DOH.

We will take a balanced approach to future expansion of the network and will look towards partnerships with other airlines and within our oneworld community for growth opportunities.

Q. What is your fleet expansion plan?

Malaysia Airlines has a total of 76 aircraft and below is the breakdown:
o 43 – Boeing 737-800
o 15 – Airbus 330-300
o 6 – Airbus 330-200
o 6 – Airbus 350-900XW
o 6 – Airbus 380 aircraft (which are no longer in service)

As for the A380, the tender exercise is ongoing, and we are still targeting the A380 fleet to exit in 2022. We are expecting to take delivery of 25 new Boeing 737-8 aircraft from May 2023 through the beginning of 2026.

Q. Besides India, which is your key source market in South Asia?

Besides India, we also operate flights to Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka. While we are currently operating on limited flight schedules for these routes, we expect to increase capacity by Q3 2022.