Malaysia Airlines reinstates some international flights

Malaysia Airlines has reinstated flights from selected locations from 1st April 2020. The reinstatement responds to appeals from travellers caught by the sudden imposition of travel restrictions resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic. Malaysians and foreigners have been caught by the flight cuts, with particular interest between Kuala Lumpur to Australia and New Zealand. London has also been requested, hopefully this will be added soon.

….. Being a network carrier, Malaysia Airlines is able to maintain connectivity and bring our customers direct or closest to their intended destination. And being Malaysia’s national carrier, it is our duty to ensure accessibility for Malaysia domestically and internationally during these difficult times. Group CEO Captain Izham Ismail

Bookings for flights to return home on Malaysia Airlines open on 30th and 31st March 2020. book direct on their website at  or via Malaysia Airlines’ app with some departure dates available for booking from 30th March 2020 onwards.

The reinstated flights:

[table style=”table-striped”]

Reinstated Flights	Departure Dates		Dates available from Malaysia Airlines website
	April 2020	May 2020
Kuala Lumpur – Auckland (MH145) Auckland – Kuala Lumpur (MH144)	3, 5, 10, 12, 19, 26 4, 6, 11, 13, 20, 27	3, 10, 17 4, 11, 18	31st March 2020 onwards
Kuala Lumpur – Melbourne (MH149) Melbourne – Kuala Lumpur (MH148)	*1, 4, 8, 11, 15, 22, 29 *2, 5, 9, 12, 16, 23, 30	6, 13 7, 14	*30 March 2020 onwards. Other departure flights bookable from 31 March 2020
Kuala Lumpur – Sydney (MH123) Sydney – Kuala Lumpur (MH122)	*2, 7, 9, 14, 16, 21, 28 *3, 8, 10, 15, 17, 22, 29	5, 12 6, 13	*30 March 2020 onwards. Other departure flights bookable from 31 March 2020
Kuala Lumpur – Perth (MH126) Perth – Kuala Lumpur (MH127)	6, 13, 20, 27 7, 14, 21, 28	4, 11 5, 12	*30 March 2020 onwards. Other departure flights bookable from 31 March 2020
Kuala Lumpur – Jakarta (MH720) Jakarta – Kuala Lumpur (MH721)	2, 9, 16, 23, 30 2, 9, 16, 23, 30	7, 14 7, 14	30 March 2020
Kuala Lumpur – Guangzhou (MH376) Guangzhou – Kuala Lumpur (MH377)	6, 13, 20, 27 6, 13, 20, 27	4, 11 5, 12	30 March 2020

[/table]

Since the enactment of Malaysia’s Movement Control Order, Malaysia Airlines has reduced its domestic frequencies and schedules. It is running at minimum capacity, mostly to facilitate essential travels and cargo movement.

Special support flights

Captain Izham also added that the airline group supports Malaysia’s Ministry of Health for the transport of medical devices and supplies. The airline dedicates ‘belly space’ across both domestic and international network and on MABkargo’s global freighter network. With a focus on personal protection equipment (PPE) and masks, Malaysia Airlines recently transported two tonnes of face masks and from Kuala Lumpur to Kota Kinabalu.

To address the capacity shortage the airline has also used the Passenger to Cargo (P2C) model, using passenger aircraft to fly cargo only out of China. This method was used to carry donated medical supplies  from the Jack Ma Foundation and Alibaba Foundation  recently on MH 389 from Shanghai to Kuala Lumpur.  This comprised 300,000 disposable masks, 50,000 protection suit and 8000 protection suits with eye masks.

Flight MH6171flew in from Shanghai on 29th March with 24 ventilators. MABkargo will also fly in more than 10 million pieces of masks and ventilators from Shanghai and Guangzhou on 1st April. The flight is facilitated by collaboration between the National Disaster Management Agency (NADMA), Ministry of Transport and Pharmaniaga Berhad.

Domestically, Malaysia Airlines, Firefly and MASwings are moving goods and medical staff across Peninsular Malaysia and to and within Sabah/Sarawak. The three airlines have also positioned standby aircraft at Subang Airport, KLIA and KKIA. These aircraft are ready to initiate rapid mobilisation of medical staff and professionals and non-COVID-19 patients. This supports the Health Ministry’s capacity/resource management efforts across Malaysia.