Malaysia Airlines has outlined its plans to “restore a significant proportion of its international schedule by the end 2021”, with frequency increases on routes to the UK, Australia and New Zealand.
The carrier plans to offer a daily flight to the UK by July, a significant increase on current schedules – when Business Traveller checked the airline’s online reservations today, only a handful of weekly services were showing as available in the coming weeks.
Malaysia Airlines will also offer three weekly connections between the UK and Australia / New Zealand from March, increasing to five from May, and daily from July.
The airline said that it expects to operate 39 weekly return flights to Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, and Perth by late December, and services to New Zealand are set to resume from late March.
To and from Sydney the carrier plans to operate twice weekly flights from April, increasing to six flights per week by August, and 13 weekly services from December.
Meanwhile Melbourne will see five weekly flights from May, increasing to daily from July, ten flights per week from August, 12 weekly services from September, and double daily frequencies from December.
Flights to Adelaide will be “paused” from March, resuming in November with a four times weekly service, while flights to Perth are expected to resume by June.
However the carrier’s Kuala Lumpur – Brisbane route is not expected to return until 2022.
A twice weekly service to Auckland is also expected by late March, gradually increasing to daily by the end of the year.
Malaysia Airlines is in the midst of an ongoing restructuring programme, aimed at strengthening the carrier’s financial position. The airline had been loss-making for several years prior to Covid-19, and now finds itself with around 75 per cent of its fleet grounded due to the pandemic.
Commenting on the news Daniel Bainbridge, Malaysia Airlines Regional Manager for UK and Europe, said;
“Malaysia Airlines is now the only airline flying directly from the UK to Malaysia with excellent onward connections to Asia and Australasia. We are excited to announce plans to resume much of our international flight schedule for 2021.
“After the challenges of 2020, our customers tell us there is strong pent-up demand especially for leisure travel for a well-earned break and we look forward to welcoming more passengers back on board soon with warm Malaysian hospitality once travel restrictions permit.”
