After announcing to pull-out from its last route to the United States at the end of April, Malaysia Airlines is now unveiling new code share agreements with its Oneworld partners.
SUBANG- It was certainly a painful decision for Malaysia Airlines to plug out its last route to the United States. Last January, the carrier announced that its flights to Los Angeles from Kuala Lumpur will be suspended from the end of April, due to rationalization measures. The airline already closed back to 2009 its route to New York, one of the longest in its network, due to continual losses. Announcing the closure of Los Angeles, MAS group chief executive officer Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said in a statement that the route was no longer viable due to over capacity and competition resulting in lower yields, high cost of operating the B777 aircraft, and pressure from continued increases in fuel costs. “These are adding further pressure to the expenses of Malaysia Airlines group, which we are continuously evaluating,” he said last January.
However, the airline has been looking for alternatives. And it just unveiled a week ago all the solutions it has been able to develop with its partners within the Oneworld alliance. Malaysia Airlines will now offer more seamless one-stop air connectivity between Kuala Lumpur and major cities in the United States of America (USA) and vice versa through various code-share arrangements and interline arrangements. American Airlines and Japan Airlines are the national carrier’s code share partners to the Americas. However, the airlines assures its passengers that connectivity to the Americas is still pretty much available considering various code share and interline arrangements.
The national carrier had earlier announced code shares with American Airlines in March 2013 which allowed 118 weekly options to and from five American cities through European stations. Then in July it announced another series of code share. The code share was also to be extended to Singapore and Bangkok via the Kuala Lumpur gateway. That gave an opportunity for guests in USA to travel to other parts of ASEAN with a seamless connection.
The 2nd phase code share now enables customers in Malaysia and the USA to book direct with Malaysia Airlines and take advantage of the connection options between Kuala Lumpur and the US Cities of Atlanta, Boston, Washington, Houston, Minneapolis, Portland, Seattle, San Francisco, Las Vegas and San Diego via the Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Dallas and Miami gateways.
Commenting on the arrangement, Malaysia Airlines Group Chief Executive Officer, Ahmad Jauhari Yahya highlighted, “These arrangements will provide excellent opportunities to expand our US network without having to mount our own flights to the various cities there. Other code shares arrangements are also being worked out as we speak. Aside from code shares we can also send customers to the USA on normal interline basis which is allowed on oneworld networks. This code share cooperation is part of the strategy of the Malaysian national carrier to develop commercial cooperation with oneworld alliance members. It is also part of the national carrier’s initiative towards enhancing air connectivity with key priority markets overseas for increased tourist arrivals into Malaysia as required by the government’s Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) and in conjunction with Visit Malaysia Year 2014” he added.
Customers can book their travel on Malaysia Airlines through MAS distribution channels. The airline meanwhile will soon unveil new destinations it is studying. Many new destinations will be located within Asia.
Luc Citrinot a French national is a freelance journalist and consultant in tourism and air transport with over 20 years experience. Based in Paris and Bangkok, he works for various travel and air transport trade publications in Europe and Asia.
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