Travellers to gain as MAB and SIA sign agreement

The national airlines of Malaysia and Singapore have recently strengthened their long-standing partnership with the signing of a wide-ranging commercial agreement. The agreement includes SilkAir and Scoot, Singapore Airlines (SIA)’s subsidiaries and Firefly, the sister airline of Malaysia Airlines Berhad (MAB). It follows the signing of the MoU in June 2019, aimed at adding new customer benefits and business opportunities.

Malaysia and Singapore Agreement

This agreement, which is subject to regulatory approval, will cover three main areas.

Revenue sharing

The sharing of revenue on flights between Singapore and Malaysia under a joint business arrangement.

This will include:

• coordinated flight schedules, providing more flight choices and frequencies
• offering joint fare products
• alignment of corporate programmes which enhance the value to customers
• tie-ups between frequent-flyer programmes

Code Sharing

Significant expansion of regional and long-haul codeshare routes will include more destinations on both Group’s networks. Current codeshares are in place on flights between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, Kota Kinabalu, Kuching and Penang. 

SIA and SilkAir plan to codeshare on MAB’s domestic flights covering a total of 16 destinations in Malaysia.

This will add seats to the following destinations in addition to those mentioned above:

• Alor Setar
• Bintulu
• Johor Bahru
• Kota Bahru
• Kuala Terengganu
• Kuantan
• Labuan
• Langkawi
• Miri
• Sandakan
• Sibu
• Tawau

MAB will add codeshares on flights between Malaysia and Singapore, Europe, South Africa and other destinations to be implemented in phases subject to approval. This represents a significant expansion of the existing codeshare agreement and provides MAB with more opportunities to expand connectivity to and from Malaysia.

Joint activities to develop tourism

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

Activities showing potential include the promotion of air-passes. These would offer more choices to travellers to Malaysia through the Kuala Lumpur and Singapore hubs, to visit other parts of the country on a single ticket. Travellers would enjoy seamless travel, offering convenience and flexibility on multi-stop itineraries.

Subject to regulatory approvals, codeshare flights will be available for sale from both the Singapore Airlines and Malaysia Airlines websites in key international markets.