Malaysia Airlines Berhad and Singapore Airlines signed a wide-ranging commercial agreement that will significantly strengthen the long-standing partnership between the two airline groups.
Subject to regulatory approvals from the relevant competition authorities, the national carriers propose 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 Singapore Airlines’ subsidiaries SilkAir and Scoot, as well as Firefly, the sister airline of Malaysia Airlines. This follows the signing of a memorandum of understanding in June 2019, which aimed to provide new customer benefits as well as new business opportunities.
Flights between Singapore and Malaysia will operate under a joint business arrangement. Malaysia Airlines and Singapore Airlines intend to coordinate flight schedules to provide customers with more flight choices and frequencies for passenger convenience. As part of the agreement, the two airline groups also plan to offer joint fare products, align corporate programmes to enhance the value proposition to customers, and explore tie-ups between their frequent-flyer programmes.
The two airline groups will also 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, Kuching and Penang.
With the expansion, Singapore Airlines and SilkAir plan to codeshare on Malaysia Airlines’ domestic flights and as such serve a total of 16 destinations in Malaysia.
In turn, Malaysian Airlines will progressively codeshare on flights between Singapore and Malaysia, Europe, South Africa and other destinations once necessary approvals are granted. This will be implemented in phases. It represents a significant expansion of the existing codeshare agreement and will provide the Kuala Lumpur-based airline with more opportunities to expand connectivity to and from Malaysia.
In addition, the airlines 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 air passes, 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. Travellers can expect a seamless experience of convenience and flexibility while enjoying multistop itineraries.
Mr. Goh Choon Phong, Singapore Airlines CEO, 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.”
Captain Izham Ismail, Malaysia Airlines CEO, said:
“We are honored to collaborate alongside Singapore Airlines in providing our customers with 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.”