Malaysia Airlines has signed a codeshare agreement with Oneworld partner Japan Airlines to place its MAS code on JAL flights from Tokyo to Vancouver.
MAS passengers can now book through-journeys to the Canadian city by transferring to a JAL flight at Tokyo Narita airport.
Outbound service MH9770 departs Narita at 1805 daily and arrives at Vancouver at 1000 local time the same day.
Return flight MH9769 leaves Vancouver at 1300 and lands in Japan at 1630 the following day. JAL codes for these legs are JL018 and JL017 respectively.
The service is operated by JAL's 199-seat B767-300ER, consisting of 24 business class seats in a 1-2-1 configuration, and 175 in economy in a 2-3-2 layout.
However, passengers connecting to and from Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) should be aware of a possible layover time at Tokyo of almost 11 hours.
MAS offers a four-times-weekly service as well as a daily flight from KLIA to Narita, but the former, MH92, arrives in Tokyo at 1830 – 25 minutes after MH9770 has departed - so is unlikely to be used as part of a through-service to Vancouver.
The daily flight, MH88, takes off from the Malaysian capital at 2335 and arrives at Narita 0715, which for passengers planning to make the transit would mean an almost 11-hour layover.
The return service would mean a five-hour wait at Tokyo before flying on to KLIA.
In November, MAS announced it has partnered with British chef Richard Corrigan to create and launch a limited edition in-flight menu from February (see news, November 20).
Graham Smith
