News

Malaysia Airlines to partner with Emirates

2 Dec 2015 by Alex McWhirter

Malaysia Airlines will retain London Heathrow as its sole European destination, it emerged this evening.

The carrier has also announced plans to axe Amsterdam Schiphol and Paris Charles de Gaulle by the end of January.

MAB has agreed to a partnership with Emirates which resembles the deal struck between Qantas and Emirates a couple of years ago.

In the case of Europe, MAB will now rely on Emirates for its European network coverage.

Codesharing with Emirates via Dubai enables MAB to offer one-stop service to 38 destinations in the UK, mainland Europe and Scandinavia.

It is unclear whether or not MAB will retain its service between Kuala Lumpur and Dubai or whether it will rely solely on Emirates.

Currently, MAB rosters a single daily A330-300 to Dubai, an improvement on its previous B777-200 service. But Emirates offers far more capacity between these two cities with five daily flights, four of which are with larger B777-300ERs and one with the A380.

However, Europe is only part of the new MAB route network; its link with Emirates opens up many new opportunities.

MAB can now offer connections over Dubai to 15 destinations in the Americas, along with 38 in the Middle East, Africa and Indian Ocean.

As an example, MAB will now be able to operate a one-stop service from Kuala Lumpur to New York, Johannesburg or Sao Paulo, to name just a few.

For the first time, this link with Emirates will make MAB truly competitive with its nearby rival Singapore Airlines.

SIA is one of the world's finest airlines but on its own it can offer nowhere near the global coverage as can the MAB/Emirates partnership.

malaysiaairlines.com

Alex McWhirter

Loading comments...

Search Flight

See a whole year of Reward Seat Availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Business Traveller March 2024 edition
Business Traveller March 2024 edition
Be up-to-date
Magazine Subscription
To see our latest subscription offers for Business Traveller editions worldwide, click on the Subscribe & Save link below
Polls