Malaysia Airlines to reinstate some international flights

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia Airlines Bhd will be reinstating some international flights to China, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand between April and May 2020, to bring home families who have not been able to return to their loved ones due to travel restrictions in many parts of the world amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Malaysia Airlines group chief executive officer Captain Izham Ismail said in a statement yesterday that many customers, comprising Malaysians and foreigners, have reached out to its global offices requesting for flights between Kuala Lumpur and Australia, New Zealand besides London in the UK.

“Being a network carrier, Malaysia Airlines is able to maintain connectivity and bring our customers direct or closest to their intended destination. And being Malaysia’s national carrier, it is our duty to ensure accessibility for Malaysia domestically and internationally during these difficult times,” Izham said.

For Australia, Malaysia Airlines said in the statement it will reinstate flights between Kuala Lumpur and Melbourne, as well as Sydney and Perth.

For New Zealand, Izham said the airline will reinstate its flights to Auckland.

For Indonesia, the airline will restart its Kuala Lumpur-Jakarta flights, and for China, it will reinstate its flights to Guangzhou.

Since the enactment of the movement control order in Malaysia, the airline said it has to reduce its domestic frequencies and schedules.

According to Izham, Malaysia Airlines is now running at a minimum pace, mostly to facilitate essential travels and cargo movement.

“Together with our sister airlines under the Malaysia Aviation Group, we support Malaysia’s ministry of health with dedicated belly space across our domestic and international network and on MASkargo’s global freighter network for the transport of medical devices and supplies. Most recently, we transported two tonnes of face masks and personal protection equipment from Kuala Lumpur to Kota Kinabalu as well as 300,000 pieces of disposable masks, 50,000 pieces of protection suits and 8,000 pieces of protection suits with eye mask courtesy of the Jack Ma Foundation and Alibaba Foundation from Shanghai to Kuala Lumpur,” he said.

Source: TheEdgeMarkets