Malaysia Airlines inks wide-ranging partnership agreement with Singapore Airlines

KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 30): Malaysia Airlines Bhd (MAB) has inked a wide-ranging commercial agreement with Singapore Airlines (SIA) to share revenue on flights between Singapore and Malaysia, expand codeshare routes and participate in joint marketing activities to develop tourism. 

The new agreement also includes SIA’s subsidiaries SilkAir and Scoot, as well as Firefly, the sister airline of MAB, said MAB in a statement today.

MAB chief executive officer (CEO) Captain Izham Ismail said: “We are honoured to collaborate alongside SIA in providing our customers a more competitive product between Malaysia and Singapore and the opportunity to travel to more global destinations.  

“This is in line with Malaysia Airlines’ long-term business plan goal of engaging in deep partnerships to extend our reach and presence globally. This partnership is more than a conventional partnership and we believe in the mutual benefits for both airline groups and countries,” he added. 

Meanwhile, SIA CEO Goh Choon Phong said: “We are very pleased to take our partnership with Malaysia Airlines to a new level. This will be a win-win for both our airline groups, and provide new benefits for our customers. In particular, the expanded scope of our partnership has the potential to provide a significant boost to the tourism industries in both Malaysia and Singapore, as well as the wider Southeast Asia region.” 

Under the agreement, the two airline groups will expand their codeshare arrangements to include more destinations on each other’s networks. 

Today, the airlines codeshare on flights between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, Kota Kinabalu, and Kuching and Penang.

With the expansion, SIA and its subsidiary SilkAir plan to codeshare on MAB’s domestic flights and serve a total of 16 destinations in Malaysia.

In turn, MAB will progressively codeshare on flights between Singapore and Malaysia, Europe, South Africa and other destinations, once necessary approvals are granted. 

It represents a significant expansion of the existing codeshare agreement and will provide MAB with more opportunities to expand connectivity to and from Malaysia. 

As part of the agreement, the two airline groups also plan to offer joint fare products, align corporate programmes to enhance value proposition to customers, and explore tie-ups between their frequent-flyer programmes.

In addition, MAB and SIA have agreed to work on joint marketing activities to boost long-haul tourism to Malaysia and Singapore.

Both airlines will also explore the potential development of airpasses, which will enable customers travelling to Malaysia through the Kuala Lumpur and Singapore hubs, more choices to visit other parts of the country such as Kuantan, Kuching and Kota Kinabalu, on a single ticket. 

This latest agreement follows the signing of a memorandum of understanding in June 2019, which aims to provide new customer benefits, as well as new business opportunities.

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