Malaysia Airlines will significantly reduce its overall network, following the nationwide Movement Control Order.
Prior to the order, Malaysia Airlines had already suspended services to Saudi Arabia, South Korea, as well as Beijing Daxing and Kota Kinabalu to Shanghai due to border controls, imposed and reduced capacity to Australia and New Zealand amid the self-isolation policy of the two countries.
Photo via The Sun Daily
The airline had also suspended international flights to India between March 17 and 31, 2020, and to the Philippines between March 21 to 31, 2020, following the respective governments' ban on travel to and from Malaysia.
Malaysia Airlines Group CEO Captain Izham Ismail said, “The situation has been rather fluid these past two days since we have had to make last-minute cancellations to abide by the restrictions. The uncoordinated approach has posed great challenges to our operations, but we are doing our best to re-route passengers via reallocation onto other carriers. This is an added cost to our operations. We are also adjusting our low load flights by cancelling and merging them to manage costs while managing our customer expectations. To date, we have cancelled more than 4,000 flights.”
Due to the significant capacity cut, Malaysia Airlines and all sister companies under the Malaysia Aviation Group’s back office operations have also been reduced alongside flight and airport operations. A majority of its workforce globally are working from home in line with various governments’ requirements to combat the spread of COVID-19. The Group ensures though that it continues to uphold the highest safety standards and its entire operations.
By: Aishah Akashah Ahadiat
