Demand persists for flights to and from Australia, New Zealand and London to bring Malaysians home

by RAHIMI YUNUS/ pic by TMR FILE

MALAYSIA Airlines Bhd (MAB) has reinstated international flights to Australia, New Zealand and London as demand persists for travellers to fly back home under the Movement Control Order (MCO).

Group CEO Captain Izham Ismail said the company is maintaining the connectivity to bring customers direct or closest to their intended destination, while ensuring accessibility for Malaysians domestically and internationally as a national flag carrier.

“Many customers, from Malaysians to foreigners, have reached out to our global offices requesting for available flights mostly between Kuala Lumpur (KL)-Australia, and KL-New Zealand, as well as from KL onward to London,” Izham said in a statement yesterday.

The reinstated flights are for KL-Auckland, KL-Melbourne, KL-Sydney, KL-Perth, KL-Jakarta and KL-Guangzhou.

MAB has offered ultimate flexibility for all flights that include free unlimited date change, free unlimited destination change and free go-show to board an earlier flight on the same day.

The airline said domestic frequencies and schedules have been reduced since the MCO and now the operation is running at a minimum, mostly to facilitate essential travels and cargo movement.

“Together with our sister airlines under the Malaysia Aviation Group (MAG), we support Malaysia’s Ministry of Health (MoH) with dedicated belly space across our domestic and international network, and on MAB Kargo Sdn Bhd’s (MASkargo) global freighter network for the transport of medical devices and supplies,” Izham said.

The carrier said MASkargo will be transporting more than 10 million pieces of masks and ventilators from Shanghai and Guangzhou in the next few days in collaboration with National Disaster Management Agency, Ministry of Transport and Pharmaniaga Bhd.

Earlier, MAB transported two tonnes of face masks and personal protection equipment from KL to Kota Kinabalu, as well as 300,000 pieces of disposable masks, 50,000 pieces of protection suit and 8000 pieces of protection suit with eye masks contributed by Jack Ma Foundation and Alibaba Foundation from Shanghai to KL.

MAB, FlyFirefly Sdn Bhd and MASwings Sdn Bhd have been facilitating the movement of goods and medical staff across Peninsular Malaysia, crossings and within Sabah and Sarawak.

The company said the MAG’s three airlines have also positioned standby aircraft at Subang Airport, KL International Airport and Kota Kinabalu International Airport to initiate rapid mobilisation of medical staff and professionals, and other non-Covid-19 patients to support MoH’s capacity and resource management efforts across Malaysia.

AirAsia Group Bhd said last week it had temporarily hibernated most of its fleet across the network that involved other operating airlines under the group in the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia and India.

AirAsia had temporarily suspended all domestic and international flights from March 28 until April 21.

Medium and long-haul provider AirAsia X Bhd, which only flies international routes, had temporarily suspended most flights for the same period.

Checks by The Malaysian Reserve on klia.com.my yesterday showed that AirAsia flights to and from Seoul and Singapore were operational.